Federal Judge Slaps Permanent Injunction on the Greensboro Redistricting Law

Federal District Court Judge Catherine Eagles has thrown out the Trudy Wade redistricting scheme for Greensboro for this election cycle, putting off a final decision on the law's constitutionality until a trial can be held prior to the 2017 city election.

"It appears on the current record that the new statute deprives Greensboro voters, alone among municipal voters in the state, of the right to change the city’s municipal government by referendum and otherwise treats the City of Greensboro and its voters differently from all other municipalities and municipal voters, without a rational basis," wrote Judge Eagles in her order today.

Another power-grab by the NC General Assembly thrown under the proverbial bus by a judge.

Meanwhile, the Republican-dominated NC Supreme Court, voting in a strictly partisan manner (4-3), today ruled that North Carolina can use public tax dollars to help children attend private and religious schools via a voucher program that a Wake County Superior Court judge had previously ruled unconstitutional.

We've got something akin to "the Roberts Court" in North Carolina, only worse. With Associate Justice Paul Newby on the Supreme Court bench, it'll be a cold day in July before we see a ruling that actually upholds the state constitution rather than upholding the partisan whims of the General Assembly.