North Carolina Voters File Motion for Preliminary Injunction to Ensure Fair Elections
Washington, D.C. — North Carolina voters, supported by the National Redistricting Foundation (NRF), have filed a motion for preliminary injunction in the Wake County Superior Court in Harper v. Hall, a challenge asserting that the recently enacted congressional map is a partisan gerrymander in violation of the North Carolina Constitution. Harper v. Hall was filed on November 18th by the same plaintiff group that successfully challenged the congressional map in 2019. Tomorrow, a three-judge panel will hold a hearing on the plaintiff group’s preliminary injunction motion.
The motion asks the court to prohibit the use of the new congressional map for the 2022 primary and general elections. It also asks the court to set forth a remedial process to create a new, constitutional congressional map.
“North Carolina Republicans passed an obvious and egregious partisan gerrymander,” said Marina Jenkins, Director of Policy and Litigation for the NRF. “North Carolinians should not be forced to vote in unconstitutional districts. Just as it did in 2019, the court should strike the unconstitutional map and ensure that North Carolina’s elections are conducted fairly and honestly.”
In support of its motion, the Harper plaintiffs note that, if the enacted congressional map is held unconstitutional, both the State Board of Elections and the court have the authority to move any administrative deadlines, and the court has the authority to move election dates -- including the primary election filing deadline of December 17, and the date of the primary election.
Providing the necessary evidentiary support for their preliminary injunction motion, the Harper plaintiffs submitted expert reports from Dr. Jowei Chen, Dr. Wesley Pegden, and Dr. Christopher Cooper -- all of whom served in similar capacities in the NRF’s state legislative case, Common Cause v. Lewis, which ruled in 2019 that North Carolina’s state legislative districts were drawn in violation of the state’s constitution. In that unanimous opinion, the Common Cause court credited Drs. Chen, Pegden, and Cooper for establishing that the districts at issue were extreme partisan gerrymanders that could have only resulted from an intentional effort to secure an unfair advantage for the Republican Party. Dr. Chen also provided expert analysis in the NRF-supported plaintiffs’ preliminary injunction motion in 2019 in Harper v. Lewis, which led the same three-judge panel to prohibit the use of the 2016 congressional map on similar partisan gerrymandering grounds. These experts show that, again, the congressional map enacted by the North Carolina General Assembly is an extreme partisan gerrymander, created with the intention to create an unfair advantage for Republicans.
The full motion is available here, and the expert reports are available here.
Contact: Brooke Lillard | Lillard@redistrictingfoundation.org