These have not been good times for Democrats wanting a fair shot at representation. The Supreme Court’s 2012 decision to eviscerate the Voting Rights Act was the beginning of a series of rulings rubber-stamping just about every tactic the Republican Party has come up with in its comprehensive war on voting rights, which includes everything from voter ID laws to voter purges to making registering voters all but illegal to partisan gerrymandering.
So when Democrats get any kind of victory in this ongoing battle, as they just did on Tuesday, it’s a remarkable development. And it shows one path for them to overcome a Supreme Court that is determined to make sure Republicans can continue to rig elections in their favor:
A North Carolina court ruled Tuesday that the state’s legislative districts are unconstitutional, in a unanimous decision that won praise from voting-rights advocates and opens a new front in the national battle over partisan gerrymanders.
The three superior court judges in Wake County set a deadline of Sept. 17 by which North Carolina’s Republican-led General Assembly must submit redrawn state House and Senate district maps to be reviewed by a court-appointed referee.
In their ruling, the judges stated that the plaintiffs had proved the effect of the “partisan” maps drawn by the state legislature was that, “in all but the most unusual election scenarios, the Republican party will control a majority of both chambers of the General Assembly.”
Proving the effect of partisan maps, it should be noted, is precisely what the Supreme Court said was impossible to do when it ruled two months ago that the federal courts have no business even trying to judge whether any gerrymander is too partisan, no matter how much it discriminates against voters from one party.
