Supreme Court renews stance on race-based gerrymandering

The Supreme Court ruled today that two congressional districts in North Carolina needed to be redrawn because race played too large a role in their creation. Both of the districts were redone on the 2016 congressional map, but the state of North Carolina continued to defend the original makeup of the districts in court. The justices ruled that Republicans who controlled the state legislature and governor's office in 2011 placed too many African-Americans in the two districts in attempt to weaken African-American voting strength elsewhere in North Carolina. The state argued the districts were drawn mainly for political reasons, not racial ones. States have to take race into account when drawing maps for legislative, congressional, and a host of municipal political districts. But race can’t be the predominant factor without very strong reasons, according to a line of high court cases stretching back 20 years.

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