Why A North Carolina Court Strikes Down GOP Gerrymandering

FEATURING BRENT LAURENZ – A North Carolina trial court has determined the their state’s severely gerrymandered districts have to be redrawn, just months after the US Supreme Court walked away from regulating the maps. Republicans have so effectively drawn district maps to benefit their party that they are retaining political power in North Carolina despite losing the popular vote.

But three state court judges just issued a 357-page unanimous ruling concluding that the existing maps, “do not permit voters to freely choose their representative, but rather representatives are choosing voters based upon sophisticated partisan sorting.”

The North Carolina judges had access to a trove of files belonging to a Republican operative named Thomas Hofeller who recently died. Now, a legal battle is shaping up over making all of Hofeller’s files public.

For more information visit www.CommonCause.org/north-carolina.

Brent Laurenz, deputy director of Common Cause North Carolina.

**This segment was originally broadcast on September 6, 2019.