Gerrymandering/Redistricting

It's Season 1, Episode 1 of The Kathay & Dan Show. Early reviews from Hollywood suggest they may be the Sonny & Cher of Fair Maps. You have to be almost as old as Elbridge Gerry to understand that comedic reference.

A three-judge federal district court panel in North Carolina today issued its stay order in the partisan gerrymandering case Common Cause v. Rucho, ordering attorneys for the North Carolina Legislators who drew the maps to comply with the conditions requested by the Common Cause plaintiffs. Those conditions require the defendants to file their Jurisdictional Statement with the Supreme Court by October 1, 2018, and to seek no requests for extension of time while their appeal is pending before the Supreme Court.

With Election Day now less than two months away, Common Cause released its 2018 Democracy Scorecard to chart the positions of every Member of Congress on issues vital to the health of our democracy. The reforms in question range from legislation to create a small donor matching fund system and increased disclosure requirements for outside political groups to bills to curb gerrymandering and strengthen the protections in the Voting Rights Act.

“Unfortunately, the General Assembly’s decision to draw a biased and gerrymandered map in 2016 allowed them to run out the clock and force North Carolinians to vote in unconstitutional districts one more time,” Bob Phillips, executive director of Common Cause North Carolina said in a statement. “Although justice will be delayed one more election cycle, we will keep up the fight for fair representation here in North Carolina and across the country when this case heads to the U.S. Supreme Court.”