RALEIGH, N.C. — In an extreme departure from precedent, the North Carolina Supreme Court announced Friday it would rehear two cases — one involving statewide redistricting and the other involving a discriminatory voter ID bill — after Republican lawmakers petitioned for a different outcome following the election of new justices, which flipped the court to a Republican majority.
Lawmakers filed two petitions for rehearings January 20, 2023: one in હાર્પર વિ. હોલ — a case brought by Common Cause North Carolina after lawmakers gerrymandered legislative and Congressional maps to give Republicans an edge at the disproportionate expense of Black voters — and the other in હોમ્સ વિ. મૂર પછી ગયા મહિને નિર્ણય આફ્રિકન અમેરિકન મતદારો સામે ભેદભાવ કરવા માટે એક ગેરબંધારણીય પગલા તરીકે ફોટો મતદાર ID કાયદાના તેમના સૌથી તાજેતરના પુનરાવર્તનને તોડી પાડ્યું હતું.
“The state Supreme Court’s landmark ruling just last year was clear that partisan gerrymandering violates the constitutional freedoms of North Carolinians,” said બોબ ફિલિપ્સ, કોમન કોઝ નોર્થ કેરોલિનાના એક્ઝિક્યુટિવ ડિરેક્ટર. “Sadly, politicians in the legislature refuse to respect our rights as they seek power to illegally rig our elections. This fight is not over. Once again, we will stand up for the people of North Carolina and defend our state’s constitution against political attacks.”
Common Cause, represented by Southern Coalition for Social Justice and co-counsel Hogan Lovells, asked the Court to dismiss lawmakers’ request in હાર્પર as frivolous, improperly motivated and grossly lacking in the requirements of propriety.
“We’re disappointed the Court is giving legislators another bite at the apple, and we maintain that this is politically motivated and outside the scope of what’s permitted by the Constitution,” said હિલેરી હેરિસ ક્લેઈન, સામાજિક ન્યાય માટે સધર્ન ગઠબંધન ખાતે મતદાન અધિકારો માટે વરિષ્ઠ સલાહકાર. “However, we look forward to arguing this case again before the Court and showing what already has been captured on the record.”
Supreme Court Justice Anita Earls wrote a dissent, with Justice Michael Morgan joining, to the majority’s decision to rehear હાર્પર.
“The majority’s order fails to acknowledge the radical break with 205 years of history that the decision to rehear this case represents,” Earls wrote. “It has long been the practice of this Court to respect precedent and the principle that once the Court has ruled, that ruling will not be disturbed merely because of a change in the Court’s composition.”
She added that data from the Supreme Court’s electronic filing system shows that since January 1993, a total of 214 petitions for rehearing were filed, but only two were granted.
હાર્પર will be reheard by the Court on March 14, 2023.
માં Holmes, the state’s high court already decided in December to strike down lawmakers’ most recent iteration of a photo voter ID law as an unconstitutional measure passed in part to discriminate against African American voters.
The Court majority also calendared that matter to be reheard on March 14, 2023.
“This certainly isn’t the outcome we’d hoped for, especially in a settled case with the legislators reasserting the exact same contentions they previously argued unsuccessfully, but we will continue to fight for the rights of all people in North Carolina to vote freely and fairly and look forward to making that case again before the new Court,” said જેફ લોપરફિડો, સામાજિક ન્યાય માટે સધર્ન ગઠબંધન ખાતે મતદાન અધિકારોના વચગાળાના મુખ્ય સલાહકાર.
The case was originally filed by Southern Coalition for Social Justice joined by co-counsel from Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, in December 2018. It alleged North Carolina’s 2018 voter ID law (S.B. 824), approved by a Republican-led supermajority in a lame-duck session, was racially motivated.
Justice Morgan wrote a dissent in Holmes with Justice Earls joining.
“The allowance of this extraordinary remedy to petitioners in this case, under the existent circumstances, may serve to foment concerns that North Carolina’s highest state court is engaged in the determination of challenging and legitimate legal disputes with a perceived desire to reach outcomes which are inconsistent with this Court’s well-established principles of adherence to legal precedent, stare decisis, and the rule of law,” Morgan wrote.
મીડિયા સંપર્કો:
બ્રાયન વોર્નર, સામાન્ય કારણ | bwarner@commoncause.org | 919-836-0027
મેલિસા બોટન, SCSJ | melissa@scsj.org | 830-481-6901
સામાન્ય કારણ ઉત્તર કેરોલિના અમેરિકન લોકશાહીના મૂળ મૂલ્યોને જાળવી રાખવા માટે સમર્પિત બિનપક્ષીય ગ્રાસરૂટ સંસ્થા છે. અમે જાહેર હિતની સેવા કરતી ખુલ્લી, પ્રામાણિક અને જવાબદાર સરકાર બનાવવા માટે કામ કરીએ છીએ; બધા માટે સમાન અધિકારો, તક અને પ્રતિનિધિત્વને પ્રોત્સાહન આપો; અને તમામ લોકોને રાજકીય પ્રક્રિયામાં તેમનો અવાજ ઉઠાવવા માટે સશક્ત બનાવે છે.
2007 માં સ્થપાયેલ સામાજિક ન્યાય માટે સધર્ન ગઠબંધન, કાનૂની હિમાયત, સંશોધન, આયોજન અને સંચારના સંયોજન દ્વારા તેમના રાજકીય, સામાજિક અને આર્થિક અધિકારોને બચાવવા અને આગળ વધારવા માટે દક્ષિણમાં રંગીન અને આર્થિક રીતે વંચિત સમુદાયો સાથે ભાગીદારી કરે છે. પર વધુ જાણો southerncoalition.org અને અમારા કાર્યને અનુસરો ટ્વિટર, ફેસબુક, અને ઇન્સ્ટાગ્રામ.