It Took an Open Records Request To Know This

The public comments collected by the NC Senate Committee on Judicial Reform and Redistricting, regarding legislative attempts to rig the court system for partisan gain, have been overwhelmingly opposed and critical of the Republican power grab. Initially, Republicans refused to release the comments and for more than a week ignored the open records request made by ProgressNC.

Of the 1,025 comments collected by the committee between December 12 and January 9 and released today, only three were positive toward the General Assembly’s plans to gerrymander court districts and eliminate judicial elections altogether.

The rest of the comments were overwhelmingly negative, ranging from disapproval of the committee’s lack of transparency to comments arguing that a legislative body elected using unconstitutional districts shouldn’t be allowed to pass new laws at all -- much less legislation making it easier for the majority to keep their stranglehold on North Carolina’s government.

“These comments show that voters overwhelmingly disapprove of lawmakers’ attempts to rig North Carolina’s court system for partisan gain,” said Gerrick Brenner, executive director of Progress North Carolina. “Unfortunately, the politicians in Raleigh have shown that they couldn’t care less about what average citizens think. Lawmakers will continue their attacks on judicial independence in order to cement their unconstitutional control of state government unless we hold them accountable.”

Charting a Path Back to Representational Government

RALEIGH  -- Gov. Roy Cooper, trying to put pressure on lawmakers to redraw state House and Senate election maps within the next two weeks, said he would call for a 14-day special session of the legislature.

The session Cooper plans to call would run simultaneously with the ongoing regular session, which is due to end some time this summer. He said such a concurrent session is rare but not unprecedented.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday affirmed a lower court ruling that found 28 legislative districts to be illegal racial gerrymanders that diluted the overall influence of black voters.... [Anne Blythe reporting in the Raleigh News & Observer]

In response to the news above, Gerrick Brenner, executive director of Progress NC Action, issued the following statement:

“This illegitimately elected General Assembly led by Phil Berger and Tim Moore has held power for the better part of a decade, thanks to unconstitutional electoral maps that intentionally dilute the voices of minority voters. During that time, lawmakers have passed countless unconstitutional laws that have cost our state millions of dollars in legal fees and made North Carolina a global pariah, thanks to discriminatory actions such as HB2 and the monster voter suppression law. Letting an illegitimate General Assembly continue passing unconstitutional laws for even one more day is too long. These maps should be redrawn immediately, and the state should hold special elections as soon as possible. Furthermore, it is long past time for North Carolina to move to an independent redistricting system, to make sure this gerrymandering end-run around democracy can never happen again.”