RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina lawmakers must redraw their legislative districts by March 15 and hold new elections by the end of next year, a federal court ruled Tuesday.
That order follows up on a ruling from this summer that found lawmakers had unconstitutionally relied on race when they drew 28 state House and Senate districts.
Although lawmakers had told the court they should be given more time to redraw their districts and should not have to hold elections until 2018, the three-judge panel disagreed.
"This gives the State a total of seven months from the time the districts were held to be unconstitutional, which is longer than it took the 2011 legislature to redistrict the entire state," read the order, which was drafted by a three-judge federal district court panel.
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This is hugely important; we have an opportunity to take back the NC legislature from the conservative (Koch-funded) movement that won it for the Republicans when we weren’t paying attention. And, we have Governor Roy Cooper and Attorney General Josh Stein to make sure it happens correctly. Are we prepared to step up and get involved in a 7 month window? Raise funds? Find candidates? Build a Party structure?