Hunt v. Cromartie

Summary

U.S. Supreme Court, Pending

        

        The United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina declared districts in the 1997 redistricting plan of the North Carolina General Assembly an unconstitutional violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

        

        In 1997, the North Carolina General Assembly enacted a plan that created six Democratic districts and six Republican districts. The predominate purpose of the 1997 plan was to cure certain defects in a 1992 redistricting plan, which the federal court ruled unconstitutionally considered race. The new plan preserved the partisan core of 1992 plan, yet differed significantly in the way the lines were drawn. District 12, a Democratic district with the most dramatic changes, contained less than 17 percent of its original population and only slightly more than 41 percent of its original geographic area. District 1, another Democratic district, was a bare majority-minority district by one measure - slightly more than 50 percent of its total population was African-American.

        

        The United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina concluded that District 12 was an unconstitutional of the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause in that the district's lines stretched and weaved to pick up predominantly African-American regions while avoiding many closer more obvious regions of high Democratic registration, but low African-American population. This court further held that District 1 met the requisite standard of strict scrutiny. While race was a predominant factor in District 1's composition, the court found that it was not impermissibly used in establishing borders.

—