미디어 연락처:
Bryan Warner, Common Cause | bwarner@commoncause.org | 919-836-0027
Melissa Boughton, SCSJ | melissa@scsj.org | 830-481-6901

RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina Republican lawmakers are wasting no time trying to use the recently-flipped state Supreme Court to their advantage — they filed petitions Friday asking the Republican-controlled court to ignore recent precedent and rehear two cases decided just last month, one involving statewide redistricting and the other involving a discriminatory voter ID bill.  

In their requests to overturn 하퍼 대 홀 — Common Cause North Carolina가 제기한 사건 after lawmakers gerrymandered legislative and Congressional maps to give Republicans an edge at the disproportional expense of Black voters — legislators ask for the ability to return to redistricting “unencumbered” by previous decisions that set constitutional limits on partisan gerrymandering. That petition also asks the court to overturn a February 2022 decision from the case, despite no petition having been filed relating to it for the better part of a year now. 

“Self-serving politicians are desperately trying to undermine the state Supreme Court’s landmark ruling against discriminatory gerrymandering. Partisan legislators want to claw power away from the people of North Carolina and go back to illegally manipulating our voting districts,” said Common Cause North Carolina의 전무이사인 Bob Phillips. “Enough. Politicians in the legislature should stop wasting taxpayers’ money in pursuit of unconstitutional power grabs. It’s time for lawmakers to follow the law.” 

As they have argued unsuccessfully throughout this case, the lawmakers’ petition in 하퍼 again asserts that partisan gerrymandering claims are non-justiciable altogether because they contend the state constitution gives legislators “the power to decide what political composition is appropriate for electoral districts.” 

Not-so-distant North Carolina history has shown that Republicans in charge of redistricting want free reign to give their party an extreme advantage to remain in control — and they have no issue drawing maps that are impervious to will of voters. Voters from both sides of the aisle overwhelmingly expressed to the legislature as late as the fall of 2021 that they didn’t want partisan gerrymandering by either political party.  

“A rehearing in this case is completely unnecessary given the record in this matter developed over the course of a year and hundreds of pages of North Carolina Supreme Court decisions,” said Hilary Harris Klein, Southern Coalition for Social Justice의 투표권 담당 수석 변호사, which represents plaintiff Common Cause NC in the 하퍼 cases. “In their 46-page document, defendants failed to identify any points of fact or law the North Carolina Supreme Court failed to consider. Instead, they merely disagree with the result, and that is not adequate grounds for a rehearing.” 

Common Cause NC opposes a 하퍼 rehearing, but applicable court rules do not automatically provide a right to be heard in response to such a filing. 

In its second petition, Republican lawmakers ask the state Supreme Court to rehear 홈즈 대 무어 after a decision last month struck down their most recent iteration of a photo voter ID law as an unconstitutional measure passed in part to discriminate against African American voters.   

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. 

“This petition is another example of legislative leadership stopping at nothing to infringe on the right of African Americans to vote freely in North Carolina,” said Jeff Loperfido, Southern Coalition for Social Justice의 투표권 임시 수석 변호사. “We’re disappointed that lawmakers would choose to waste time rehashing arguments that were rejected by the Court mere weeks ago rather than doing the work of passing a voter photo ID that passes constitutional muster.” 

Plaintiff Jabari Holmes, an African American voter with disabilities, and the legal team in the case oppose a rehearing, but like the other petition, court rules don’t give an automatic right to respond. 

노스캐롤라이나의 공통 원인 미국 민주주의의 핵심 가치를 옹호하는 데 전념하는 비당파적 풀뿌리 조직입니다. 우리는 공익에 봉사하는 개방적이고 정직하며 책임감 있는 정부를 만들고, 모든 사람을 위한 평등한 권리, 기회 및 대표를 촉진하고, 모든 사람이 정치 과정에서 자신의 목소리를 낼 수 있도록 힘을 실어줍니다. 

2007년에 설립된 Southern Coalition for Social Justice는 남부의 유색인종 커뮤니티와 경제적으로 불리한 커뮤니티와 협력하여 법적 옹호, 연구, 조직 및 커뮤니케이션을 결합하여 정치적, 사회적, 경제적 권리를 방어하고 증진합니다. 자세한 내용은 다음에서 확인하세요. southerncoalition.org.