How the Left Operates (How it has consistently used "race" to invalidate NC Voter ID initiatives) | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Each state legislature is tasked with drawing up district lines, or district maps. District lines for US congressional districts and for both state house and senate districts must be re-drawn every 10 years following the completion of the US census. The party holding the majority in the state legislature at the time re-districting maps are to be re-drawn has the benefit of drawing those district lines to its advantage. Nothing in the state constitution of North Carolina requires that re-districting be done on a non-partisan basis. In fact, for so many years, while Democrats have held the majority in both houses in the NC General Assembly, they have drawn maps to favor their party, including focusing on race since it is a strong indicator of Democratic support.


    North Carolina has 13 US congressional districts (for its 13 representatives in the US Congress), it has 120 NC house districts, and 50 NC Senate districts. The NC General Assembly is alone responsible for drawing up all these maps/districts and they are NOT subject to approval by the Governor. In other words, the maps drawn up by the Redistricting Committee is not subject to being vetoed by the Governor.

    In drawing up district maps, the federal government mandates that districts must have nearly equal populations to comport with the US Constitution and notions of democracy. The rule that election districts contain equal populations is the essence of the general idea of "One Person, One Vote," which was emphasized by the Supreme Court in 1962 (Baker v. Carr). It means that a person's vote counts equally no matter where he casts his vote. Civil Rights laws further mandate that district maps must not discriminate on the basis of race or ethnicity. It is OK to discriminate based on the white color of one's skin, it is OK to discriminate based on affluence (or lack thereof), and it is OK to discriminate based on political affiliation. The courts have always tolerated partisan gerrymandering (even when district maps assume no reasonable shape at all) but they do not tolerate racial gerrymandering.

    Hence we are starting to see why the allegation of "racial" gerrymandering was made. Partisan gerrymandering will not guarantee a favorable challenge and outcome. An allegation of "racial" gerrymandering will.

    This is how the Democratic machine works.

    Anyway, Senate leader Phil Berger has filed an appeal on behalf of the Republican legislative leaders, calling Judge Collin's ruling an "absurd decision." His full announcement read: "We are duty-bound to appeal this absurd decision. The prospect of invalidating 18 months of laws is the definition of chaos and confusion. Based on tonight's opinion and others over the past several years, it appears the idea of judicial restraint has completely left the state of North Carolina. Rest assured, our lawyers will appeal this ridiculous ruling, but it's yet another example of activist judges taking away your political power to suit their own liberal agenda."

    Republicans contend Collins' reasoning jeopardizes dozens of laws.

    Here is what the appeal by the Republican legislators argues: (i) Judge Collins disregarded the fact that a federal court had allowed the 2016 election to proceed using the challenged districting maps; (ii) If Collins' ruling should stand, then essentially the state had no government for almost 2 years (2017-2018). Yet residents were still required to pay taxes to it; (iii) If Collin's ruling should be permitted to stand, then it would invalidate all the laws of that "illegal legislative session - anarchy; and (iv) To allow Collins' ruling to stand would create chaos and further litigation in North Carolina.

    In the meantime, Sen. Berger appealed to Judge Collins to stay his order striking down the amendments (stay = "put on hold") while he and fellow Republican leaders file their appeal with the state appellate court, but he refused. The case will most likely reach the state Supreme Court. Currently, the seven-member body is composed of at least five registered Democrats, but Governor Cooper will have the opportunity to appoint one more associate justice, to fill the vacancy on the court caused by his appointment of Associate Justice Cheri Beasley to Chief Justice. It will no doubt be another Democrat, bringing the total to 6 Democrat justices.

    A statement by Sen. Berger after the ruling by Judge Collins perhaps describes it best: "All North Carolinians, regardless of party, should be concerned by this lawlessness, because it's only a matter of time before a judge comes for their preferred legislative policies. Judge Collins is calling the legislature a usurper body while himself usurping the will of millions of North Carolinians who voted to amend their own constitution."

    The one redeeming quality about this ruling is that we can now see all so clearly how liberal-minded, overreaching judges tend to bend the Constitution for progressive purposes and how they use their positions on the bench to disregard the democratic process and un-do the will of the people.

    So what does this mean for the honest and decent and well-meaning citizens of North Carolina who want transparent elections in their state? What does this mean for the honest and decent and well-meaning North Carolinians who, despite what Spearman says, do not live their lives seeing things in terms of black and white, who enjoy living side-by-side with persons who don't look exactly like themselves, and who simply are concerned about the integrity of the NC election process? What does this mean for the majority of North Carolinians who have pressured their state government to address voter fraud and potential voter fraud since 2010?

    The good news is that the Voter ID law (SB 2018-144) passed by the General Assembly in December is still good - at least for now. It is a stand-alone bill, not tied by language to the constitutional amendment, and passed by members of the General Assembly of both parties (with two Democrats joining Republicans in the House and one joining Republicans in the Senate). The equipment is not in place yet to provide a free photo ID to those who can't afford one or who otherwise can't obtain one, but should be in time for the next election cycle.

    The appeal has been filed by Senate leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore and we should soon find out if Judge Collins' judicial order will stand or be overturned. If the order invalidating the amendments is upheld, there may be a lawsuit to challenge the Voter ID law as the product of an illegally-constituted General Assembly but to move forward under that theory would potentially mean that every single piece of legislation and every decision made could also be challenged in court. My guess is that such a lawsuit won't be filed.

    For now, North Carolina has a strict Voter ID law in place. The only thing the NCNAACP has done is to manufacture a crisis of racism that doesn't exist and to be successful in convincing a lower state court judge to issue one of the grossest acts judicial activism in recent history. There should be no place in North Carolina for the NCNAACP.

    References:

    Voter ID law - SB 2018-144 (2017-2018) - https://www.ncleg.gov/BillLookup/2017/S824"NC Judge Invalidates Two Constitutional Amendments Passed by Voters Last Fall," NC Family Policy Facts, February 25, 2019. Referenced at: http://my.ncfamily.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=5207.0&dlv_id=9084

    Gary Robertson, "Judge Strikes Down North Carolina Voter ID OK'ed by Voters," The Washington Post, February 22, 2019. Referenced at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/judge-strikes-down-north-carolina-voter-id-okd-by-voters/2019/02/22/0cfd1a98-3708-11e9-8375-e3dcf6b68558_story.html?utm_term=.24d45d7283d2

    "Voter ID History," National Conference of State Legislatures. Referenced at: http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/voter-id-history.aspx

    Rebecca Trippett, "NC in Focus: Who are NC's Democratic Voters?" UNC Carolina Demography, October 2, 2016. Referenced at: https://demography.cpc.unc.edu/2016/10/07/nc-in-focus-who-are-ncs-democratic-voters/

    "Federal Judges: Racially-Tainted General Assembly Districts Must Be Redrawn," WRAL, August 11, 2016. Referenced at: https://www.wral.com/federal-judges-racially-tainted-general-assembly-districts-must-be-redrawn/15920846/


    Adam Liptak, "Justices Reject 2 Gerrymandered North Carolina Districts, Citing Racial Bias," The New York Times, May 22, 2017. Referenced at: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/22/us/politics/supreme-court-north-carolina-congressional-districts.html

    VIDEO: "How Gerrymandering Got its Name." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BWVDUpEaNM

    VIDEO: "Crash Course on Re-districting." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnhFm5QVVTo

    NAACP and Clean Air Carolina v. Moore and Berger, COMPLAINT -

    https://www.southernenvironment.org/uploads/words_docs/Complaint_-_Usurpers_FINAL_-_pdf.pdf [Notice how the NAACP refers to Republican leaders as "Usurpers"]

    NAACP and Clean Air Carolina v. Moore and Berger (2018), OPINION - https://www.southernenvironment.org/uploads/words_docs/doc03389420190222171503.pdf

    Ariane de Vogue, "Supreme Court Blocks Court Order to Redraw North Carolina Congressional Districts," CNN, January 19, 2018. Referenced at: https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/18/politics/north-carolina-supreme-court-redistricting/index.html [US Supreme Court voted 7-2 to freeze (ignore) a lower federal court ruling that struck down North Carolina's congressional districts, holding that it amounted to an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander. The order makes it likely, although not certain, that the controversial maps will be used for the 2020 election. In January 2018, a three-judge panel of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the lower district court and held that North Carolina's 2016 plan was enacted "with the intent of discriminating against voters who favored non-Republican candidates" and that the plan violated the First Amendment by "unjustifiably discriminating against voters based on their previous political expression and affiliation." Partisan gerrymandering had been permitted by the Supreme Court and lower courts in the past, assuming that politics was always involved in the drafting of maps. The lower district court had ordered the NC General Assembly to enact a remedial redistricting plan by January 24, 2019. The Supreme Court voted to freeze that court order and, at least for now, to allow the maps to remain in place for the next election. The order comes as the Supreme Court is also considering two other partisan gerrymander cases - one from Maryland and the other from Wisconsin. It is likely that should it take those cases, the NC case will be re-considered along with the other two. If the Supreme Court agrees to hear the cases, it will be the first time that the high court takes up the issue of "when is partisan gerrymandering too extreme" (so as to offend notions of fairness). The court will address the question of whether or not standards for partisan gerrymandering can be determined and applied].

    Voter ID Laws by State, Ballotpedia. https://ballotpedia.org/Voter_identification_laws_by_state

    "Redistricting and the Supreme Court: The Most Significant Cases," National Commission of State Legislatures (NCSL), July 9, 2018. Referenced at: http://www.ncsl.org/research/redistricting/redistricting-and-the-supreme-court-the-most-significant-cases.aspx

    Those cases:

    Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186 (1962). For the first time, the court held that the federal courts had jurisdiction to consider constitutional challenges to state legislative redistricting plans. The Court held that a federal district court had jurisdiction to hear a claim that this inequality of representation violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

    Gray v. Sanders, 372 U.S. 368 (1963). The Court established the constitutional standard for equality of representation as "one person, one vote."

    Karcher v. Daggett, 462 U.S. 725 (1983). Congressional districts must be mathematically equal in population, unless necessary to achieve a legitimate state objective.


    Shaw v. Reno, 509 U.S. 630 (1993). Legislative and congressional districts will be struck down by courts for violating the Equal Protection Clause if they cannot be explained on grounds other than race. (While not dispositive, "bizarrely shaped" districts are strongly indicative of racial intent).

    Cooper v. Harris, (2017). Partisanship cannot be used to justify a racial gerrymander.

    **** I always thought that it was odd the Courts did so, since: (i) it is the manipulation of district maps for partisan purposes that is the real concern in elections, and (ii) all too often, racial identity and political identity are the same.