CASE SUMMARY

On August 8, 2013, several registered voters in North Carolina and two citizen organizations filed suit against the State of North Carolina and the Wake County Board of Elections, challenging a local bill passed by the North Carolina General Assembly in 2013 which made numerous changes to the election procedures and districts for the Wake County School Board. The bill changed the Board's 2011 districting plan from nine single-member districts to seven single-member districts with two "super-districts" that divided Wake County like a donut to create an inner, urban super-district and an outer, rural super-district, in addition to prohibiting the Wake County School Board from making any changes to its method of election until 2021, and only then to correct population imbalances. The plaintiffs claimed that the bill and its resulting districts violated the one person, one vote equal population requirements under the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause and the North Carolina Constitution's equal protection clause. They sought a court declaration that the local bill violated the U.S. and North Carolina Constitutions and the Plaintiffs' rights thereunder, and a preliminary and permanent injunction barring the defendants from enforcing or giving any effect to the challenged bill. Additionally, the plaintiffs sought a declaration that in the absence of the General Assembly enacting a lawful election bill for the Wake County Board of Education, the Wake County Board of Education itself must adopt a redistricting plan that complies with the one-person, one-vote constitutional requirement.

On March 17, 2014, the district court originally granted the defendants' motion to dismiss, finding that the State of North Carolina was immune from suit under the 11th Amendment and that the plaintiffs' one-person, one-vote claims were really partisan gerrymandering claims, which it considered non-justiciable under both the U.S. and North Carolina Constitutions. The plaintiffs appealed the dismissal order to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and on May 27, 2015, the Fourth Circuit affirmed in part the district court's ruling as to 11th Amendment immunity, reversed in part as to its finding that the plaintiffs had failed to state a claim, and remanded the case back to district court.

On remand, the case was consolidated with Raleigh Wake Citizens Association v. Wake County Board of Elections, a challenge to the Wake County Commissioner Districts created by the General Assembly in 2015 alleging violations of the one-person, one-vote constitutional requirement and racial gerrymandering claims as to certain districts. On February 26, 2016, the district court ruled for the defendants, finding that the plaintiffs failed to prove that either the 2013 Wake County School Board Plan or the 2015 Wake County Commissioners Plan violated the one-person, one-vote requirement in the U.S. and N.C. Constitutions. It also held the plaintiffs failed to prove the General Assembly racially gerrymandered one of the districts in the 2015 Wake County Commissioners Plan. The plaintiffs appealed these rulings to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, which on July 1, 2016, affirmed the district court's rejection of the racial gerrymandering claim, but reversed the one-person, one-vote rulings, finding that plaintiffs had proven their state and federal one-person, one-vote claims with respect to both the 2013 School Board plan and the 2015 County Commissioners plan.

On August 9, 2016, the district court granted permanent declaratory and injunctive relief barring the 2013 School Board plan and 2015 County Commissioners plan from being used in the 2016 elections, and issued an interim remedial plan which ordered that the 2011 School Board and 2011 County Commissioners plans be used for the 2016 election, with the expectation that the General Assembly would enact constitutionally compliant plans of each type in 2017. On December 28, 2017, due to the General Assembly not having enacted new plans, the court adopted a consent decree extending its remedial plan such that the 2011 plans would be used again for the 2018 elections.

CASE LIBRARY

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina - No. 13-cv-00607

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit - No. 14-1329

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina - No. 5:13-cv-00607 [Consolidated with Raleigh Wake Citizens Association, et al. v. Wake County Board of Elections, No. 5:15-cv-156]

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit - No. 16-1271 [Consolidated with Raleigh Wake Citizens Association, et al. v. Wake County Board of Elections, No. 16-1270]

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina - No. 5:13-cv-00607 [Consolidated with Raleigh Wake Citizens Association, et al. v. Wake County Board of Elections, No. 5:15-cv-156]

Wright v. State of North Carolina
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