NC’s Gerrymandered Voting Maps Upheld By U.S. Supreme Court

CHARLOTTE, NC — In a move anticipated to affect the 2020 presidential election and further exacerbate hyper-partisanship in the country, the Supreme Court said Thursday it was the responsibility of Congress and state legislators — and not federal courts — to tackle unjust gerrymandered voting maps that artificially inflate one party’s political power at the expense of another. The decision comes as a blow to Democrats in North Carolina, where a GOP-rigged campaign to gerrymander voting districts had previously been found unconstitutional by a federal court.

The court’s decision was 5-4 and split along ideological lines, with the court saying that “partisan gerrymandering claims present political questions beyond the reach of the federal courts.”

In writing the majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts said, “Excessive partisanship in districting leads to results that reasonably seem unjust. But the fact that such gerrymandering is ‘incompatible with democratic principles,’... does not mean that the solution lies with the federal judiciary.”

RELATED: Supreme Court Sends NC Gerrymandering Case Back To Lower Court

To expand judicial authority into the issue, he said, “would not be into just any area of controversy, but into one of the most intensely partisan aspects of American political life,” Bloomberg reported.

Justice Elena Kagan blasted the majority’s decision to not weigh in, saying gerrymandering deprived citizens of the right to participate equally and in choosing political representation. “These gerrymanders enabled politicians to entrench themselves in office as against voters’ preferences,” she said. “They promoted partisanship above respect for the popular will,” and “encouraged a politics of polarization and dysfunction.”

RELATED: North Carolina Gerrymandering: Congressional Map Found Unlawful

North Carolina’s Republican Party lauded the court’s decision, saying, “We are pleased that the Supreme Court declined to overrule the sovereignty of states and has held that the power to draw Congressional Districts lies with state legislatures and not the courts.”

The ruling is expected to impact new district map drawing that will occur after the upcoming 2020 Census, Bloomberg said.