N.C. Justices Kick Redistricting Mootness Decision Back to Trial Court | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: This post was created by the staff for the Carolina Journal, John Hood Publisher.

    A three-judge state court panel will decide whether the first lawsuit challenging N.C. election maps this decade can continue. The three judges also could decide to drop the case as moot.

    The N.C. Supreme Court issued a one-page order this week returning Dickson v. Rucho to the three-judge panel that originally heard the case. Justices have ordered the trial court to "determine whether (1) in light of Cooper v. Harris and North Carolina v. Covington, a controversy exists or if this matter is moot in whole or in part; (2) there are other remaining collateral state and or federal issues that require resolution; and (3) other relief may be proper."

    The trial court upheld state congressional and legislative election maps in Dickson, and the N.C. Supreme Court affirmed that initial ruling with a 4-2 split. But the U.S. Supreme Court has vacated the state's highest court and sent the case back to North Carolina twice, most recently after throwing out the election maps in two later federal court cases. In Cooper the high court found that two congressional districts used in 2012 and 2014 were unconstitutional because of racial gerrymandering. In Covington a unanimous court affirmed a federal trial court's ruling striking down 28 legislative districts on racial gerrymandering grounds.

    No date has been scheduled for Dickson v. Rucho to return to court.