On Tuesday, it was announced that the U.S. Supreme Court blocked a lower court ruling ordering North Carolina legislators to redraw state legislative districts. The lower court decision would have required special elections to be held by March 15, once the new districts were drawn.
According to the AP, “Tuesday’s court order granted the request of North Carolina Republican legislative leaders and state officials to delay November’s ruling by a three-judge panel. The panel last summer threw out 28 state House and Senate districts as illegal racial gerrymanders.”
In a joint statement, House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate Leader Phil Berger said, “We are grateful the U.S. Supreme Court has quashed judicial activism and rejected an attempt to nullify the votes of North Carolinians in the 2016 legislative elections.”
Your headline is misleading. This act by the Supreme Court is to delay. It didn’t shut down the lawsuit.
Is it impossible for North Carolina GOP to be honest and up front. You draw conclusions you want to see not what is!
It looks like some of the facts got scrambled here. According to the Supreme Court’s own documented order, the ruling before them in this appeal, known formally as NORTH CAROLINA, ET AL. V. SANDRA LITTLE COVINGTON, ET AL., was for a stay (that’s a delay).
The stay was granted, pending the timely filing of a statement as to jurisdiction, and if that is filed within the required timeframe, the stay remains in effect for a defined period of time pending SCOTUS rendering a decision in the matter.
Here’s a link to the Supreme Court order: https://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/courtorders/011017zr_k5gm.pdf
Your article states that special elections would be held in March. That is not correct. The ruling calls for districts to be redrawn by March, but specifies a primary in late August/early September and a November election, the latter presumably on the regular election day.
It is also possible that they will cancel the special election (leaving the current incumbents in place until the 2018 election) but still require the districts to be redrawn.
Clickbait fake news. It’s a 2-week delay. Not a shutdown.