News Clips

“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.”

"The Supreme Court could well end up deciding a variety of issues related to presidential power involving ongoing DOJ matters, including the Special Counsel’s investigation, that go to the heart of the electoral process. A cloud hangs over the very constitutional officer who is vested with the power to choose a person for a lifetime appointment to the highest court in our judicial system and who may later sit in judgment of them," wrote Karen Hobert Flynn, president of Common Cause.

“I don't recall ever seeing a president going so vociferously after the spouses of civil servants,” said Stephen Spaulding, with the non-partisan good government organization Common Cause. “On the Hill, disclosure rules might apply to an immediate family member. Nothing we have seen in the past is comparable to what we are seeing with Trump and especially out of the White House. And these are absolutely smear tactics. You see a pattern of behavior where he is absolutely willing to go after spouses of people.”

“I don’t really see a lot of gray area here,” said Paul Seamus Ryan, a campaign law expert and vice president for policy and litigation at Common Cause in Washington, D.C. “There appears to me to be an awful lot of expenses that the Hunters were indicted for that aren’t allowed by the FEC, and aren’t close calls at all.”

“Although North Carolina’s loud and proud admission that legislators drew districts for partisan advantage is unusual, the practice is universal when politicians are in charge,” said Kathay Feng, Common Cause national redistricting director. “Until we prohibit partisan gerrymandering, a true representative democracy will remain out of reach, and the voices of all Americans will continue to be silent.”

Bob Phillips, executive director of Common Cause North Carolina, called the ruling "a historic win for voters, and a significant step towards finally ending gerrymandering.”