Jubilant at holding the reigns of power, North Carolina Republicans’ loonier members claimed the right to nullify Supreme Court decisions. A Trump presidency later, such hostility has given way to a supreme confidence that the Court will act as a Republican ally. That’s the only possible interpretation of state House Speaker Tim Moore’s assurance that the GOP may appeal their redistricting case to the United States Supreme Court. Two branches of government, at two different levels of authority, are working hand in glove to solidify Republican minority rule.
The GOP clearly anticipated defeat at the hands of North Carolina’s Democratic-controlled Supreme Court. Their charges of partisanship were laughable given that it was Republicans who made Supreme Court elections partisan in the first place. Republicans wanted more, not less, partisanship on the Court when they believed party ID would help their cause, and now that the voters have opted for divided government, they want strict reticence from the Justices. It’s the kind of opportunism we expect from the NCGOP.
Republicans attempted through their mouthpiece at Carolina Journal to intimidate SCONC away from ruling the GOP’s district maps as unconstitutional. Their gambit failed. And it failed not because a majority of North Carolina Justices are Democrats but because the maps were obscene. North Carolina Democrats won the popular vote for United States House in 2020. The maps drawn by Republicans, however, would have resulted in GOPers attaining at least 10 out of the state’s 14 Congressional seats and possibly as many as 11. Only one seat was remotely competitive, and observers can rest assured that Republicans went to the full length of extremism to quash competition literally everywhere else in the state.
So. The North Carolina Supreme Court gave our democracy a reprieve. What is a Republican gerrymandering honcho to do? Go to the Supreme Court of the United States for a second chance at defending their oligarchical aspirations. After all, SCOTUS just ruled, in a decision so anti-democratic even right-wing John Roberts joined the dissent, that Alabama is not obligated to maintain just two districts where African Americans have a chance of election candidates of their choice. Chief Justice Roberts has been obsessed with gutting the Voting Rights Act since he was a young attorney in the Reagan administration–and even he could not conscience a ruling that one of the most racist states in the country can imposed racism on its Black minority.
North Carolina Republicans, then, are confident there’s a good chance that the U.S. Supreme Court will overrule the judgment of North Carolina Justices and let the gerrymandered maps stand. This is yet another case of hypocrisy from the wingers who have always cried States’ Rights! When federal judges overruled North Carolina’s homophobic Amendment One, NCGOP leaders were filled with outrage that the federal judiciary would interfere with the affairs of the state. But in a sense, their appeal to SCOTUS on gerrymandering is like the “preemption” they have practiced in banning, bullying, and serially overruling progressive policies at the local level. Their goal is right-wing hegemony with no challenges from Democrats. The U.S. Supreme Court may give it to them.
Let’s be very clear about this: NCGOP politicians, aided and abetted by the Pope political machine and the nefarious Koch Brothers, are more of a threat to the everyday lives of people in the Tar Heel State than is any foreign entity. They wish nothing more than to destroy the middle and lower class for the benefit of the very wealthy and to maintain political power by any means necessary. A pox to any and all who support them. I can only hope that the worst befalls the NCGOP.
The bottom line is a left leaning NC Supreme Court, with not one but two members with personal vested interests in the adjudicated outcome, voted as expected to remove the legislature from map making. In their view, elections do not have consequences, except in the appointment of judges such as themselves. Never mind 140 years of Democrat gerrymandering in the state, Eric Holder’s “Sue ‘Till Blue” strategy is their legal dogma.
Absolutely, I demand the Legislative leaders take this matter before the US Supreme Court and put an end to this third estate’s unlawful interference in the second estate’s business.
Just for clarification old man, (1) what “personal vested interests” are these judges protecting? (2) The 140 years of Democratic gerrymandering you mention, what period does that cover?
Well considering the ruling for Alabama this week. The Supreme Court’s pretty likely to side with NC GOP – since they took the McConnell SCOTUS drum beat (when convenient) that it was too close to an election to make map changes.
Oh dear, I fear you are right, Although more people understand Gerrymandering these days than 5 years ago. A SCOTUS ruling allowing the NC GOP’s Gerrymandered maps would be a,”I don’t give a shit about what you voters think'” ruling that the court may be too embarrassed to provide.
The bottom line is Republicans want the taxpayers to pay the tab for this appeal so they can continue to crack and pack voting districts without interference from the Feds. But that Georgia case you mentioned may be a sign that if Republicans get too ridiculous, they will be shut down. As to the belief that a US Supreme Court decision can be ignored, the best advise they could receive is pack your bags, you may be moving shortly to the Trump wing of Club Fed.