RALEIGH, N.C. — After months of back and forth from state legislators and voting rights advocates, the issue of redistricting will be in front of justices on the North Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday.
Justices will hear a blockbuster redistricting case after a panel of lower-court judges ruled in favor of approving the new maps. Republicans, who control the state legislature, created and passed the new maps last year.
But some voting rights groups argue the maps were unfairly drawn, so the issue now goes to the state's highest court.
Three North Carolina Supreme Court justices have decided they won’t step aside from hearing the case this week. Associate Justices Anita Earls, Sam Ervin IV and Phil Berger Jr. denied on Monday the recusal motions targeting them from lawyers covering both sides of the litigation.
The absence of justices from proceedings could have tilted the outcome as to whether lines approved for the next decade will be upheld or struck down.
According to Catawba College political scientist Dr. Michael Bitzer, the case is about the allegations of partisan gerrymandering, which have been a fabric of North Carolina politics for decades.
"So it really will be a battle over what does the North Carolina constitution mean? And how far can Republicans push partisan gerrymandering in an acceptable amount, per the North Carolina state constitution?" said Bitzer.
It could be a few weeks until the justices deliver their decision on the redistricting case. And even then, Bitzer warned that might not be the end.
"Once the legislature gets the opinion, they could potentially choose to perhaps appeal that decision directly to the US Supreme Court, because they have raised a federal question in their brief to this particular case," said Bitzer. "So it may not be all said and done by the time we get a decision from the state Supreme Court."
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