Appeals panel won’t order North Carolina Senate redistricting lines to be redrawn

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A federal appeals court declined Thursday to order North Carolina legislators to redraw some state Senate districts, rejecting arguments that clear evidence has been presented showing Republican manipulation of boundaries means Black voters there are prevented from electing their favored candidates.

In a 2-1 decision, a panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, upheld a trial court judge’s decision in January that refused to issue a preliminary injunction preventing the use of two Senate districts and to order the General Assembly to redraw them.

Two Black voters who sued in November contend that the GOP-controlled legislature violated the Voting Rights Act last fall by fracturing a politically cohesive unit known as the “Black Belt” region when it redrew the two northeastern districts.

U.S. District Judge James Dever had decided in part that lawyers for the voters had not shown that voting in close to 20 counites was racially polarized at legally significant levels to justify new districts. And Dever said it was too late in the 2024 election cycle — legislative primaries were held March 5 — to order new lines, citing a legal principle discouraging voting-rule changes close to elections.

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