NPR Talks with Law Profs About Racial Gerrymandering in the Supreme Court

NPR Talks with Law Profs About Racial Gerrymandering in the Supreme Court

Wash. DC - NPR's Nina Totenberg discusses the North Carolina racial gerrymandering claim to be heard today before the U.S. Supreme Court.  Totenberg chats with Stanford law professor Nathaniel Persily and Richard Hasen of University of California Irvine about the two congressional districts in dispute and how the court has dealt with similar claims in the past. Click below.      
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Packing Minorities Into Districts. When Is That Ever Okay?

Packing Minorities Into Districts. When Is That Ever Okay?

Washington DC - The Supreme Court will tackle that question today as it hears oral arguments in two redistricting cases.  Both cases are alleged racial gerrymander claims; one orginating from Virginia's state legislative map and the other from North Carolina's congressional district map.  (more…)
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Court Rules 28 of 170 N.C. Legislative Districts are Racial Gerrymanders

Court Rules 28 of 170 N.C. Legislative Districts are Racial Gerrymanders

North Carolina - Last Thursday, a three-judge U.S. District Court panel ruled that 28 of the Republican-drawn districts for the N.C. legislature were indeed unconstitutional racial gerrymanders. The Republican practice of making "safe" minority districts even "safer" to comply with the Voting Rights Act was completely disavowed by the court.  In short, the Voting Rights Act does not mandate districts in which minorities are already successful at electing their preferred candidates, to be packed with even more minority voters - something that North Carolina insisted was the case. The districts will stand for the 2016 election however.  The court has ordered a…
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Supreme Court Looks Past Weak Pleadings to Find Potential Racial Gerrymander in Alabama Map

Supreme Court Looks Past Weak Pleadings to Find Potential Racial Gerrymander in Alabama Map

The Supreme Court’s recent opinion remanding a challenge by Black state officials to the 2012 Alabama Legislative district map back to a federal district court is relatively short for a majority opinion but chock full of legal nuggets as the justices’ focused on several bases for returning this case back to a lower court to reconsider its ruling against the plaintiffs. In all, the decision discussed four distinct issues; two procedural and two substantive – it felt the lower court bungled. If we had to explain the four corners of the Alabama opinion in one sentence it would be; The…
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Listen: Supreme Court Oral Argument in Alabama Racial Gerrymander Case

Listen: Supreme Court Oral Argument in Alabama Racial Gerrymander Case

  Listen to the Supreme Court's oral arguments in the consolidated cases; Alabama Legislative Black Caucus v. Alabama and  Alabama Democratic Conference v. Alabama. Democratic lawmakers in the Alabama legislature claim the Republican-led legislature packed Black voters into state legislative districts to dilute their voting power resulting in an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. The court heard oral arguments on November 12th 2014.    
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