Judges Rule NC Gerrymandered Districts

A federal court on Friday ruled that North Carolina’s General Assembly gerrymandered two of the state’s 13 voting districts along race lines. The two districts, the 1st and 12th, must be redrawn in two weeks. Critics of the redistricting, which occurred in 2011 and was led by Republicans, said that the lines were drawn to concentrate black voters in such a way that it weakened their overall impact on state politics. The lawsuit against the gerrymandering alleged that the 1st District is “akin to a Rorschach inkblot.” It weaves through parts of 24 counties and has a perimeter of 1,319 miles—“almost precisely the distance from Chapel Hill to Austin, Texas.”