''Easley v. Cromartie'', 532 U.S. 234 (2001), is an appeal of the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

case '' Hunt v Cromartie''. The case defendant is

Mike Easley Michael Francis Easley (born March 23, 1950) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 72nd governor of North Carolina from 2001 to 2009. He is the first governor of North Carolina to have been convicted of a felony. A member of ...

, who became North Carolina governor following

Jim Hunt James Baxter Hunt Jr. (born May 16, 1937) is an American politician and retired attorney who was the List of governors of North Carolina, 69th and 71st Governor of North Carolina (1977–1985, and 1993–2001). He is the longest-serving governo ...

. The court's ruling on April 18, 2001, stated that redistricting for political reasons did not violate Federal

Civil Rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...

Law banning race-based

gerrymandering In representative democracies, gerrymandering (, originally ) is the political manipulation of electoral district boundaries with the intent to create undue advantage for a party, group, or socioeconomic class within the constituency. The m ...

. (Case No. 99-1864). The issue facing this Supreme Court case was Constitutional validity of the

Congressional Districts Congressional districts, also known as electoral districts and legislative districts, electorates, or wards in other nations, are divisions of a larger administrative region that represent the population of a region in the larger congressional bod ...

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

. Specifically, the 12th district which cut through th
southwestern portion
of the state. The complaint of the plaintiff and North Carolina citizens was that the drawing of the district violated the

Equal Protection Clause The Equal Protection Clause is part of the first section of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The clause, which took effect in 1868, provides "''nor shall any State ... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal ...

of the Constitution as the district was drawn primarily amongst racial considerations. The justification of the court stated that in North Carolina, race and politics are strongly correlated. The district may be majority African American, however, Southern Blacks have strong tendencies to vote Democrat. Voter registrations were used as evidence to prove to the court that the redistricting which drew the 12th district were arguably based on political reasons. In the majority opinion, Stephen G Breyer says "the party attacking the legislatively drawn boundaries must show at the least that the legislature could have achieved its legitimate political objectives in alternative ways that are comparably consistent with traditional districting principles", and in this case, the plaintiffs were not able to make this argument compelling. Justice O'Connor previously sided with the district courts in '' Hunt v Cromartie,'' however, this instance ruled with the North Carolina legislature, acting as the all important swing vote to overturn the previous decision 5–4. The allegedly odd-shaped district was allowed to stand.

References

External links

* United States Supreme Court cases of the Rehnquist Court United States electoral redistricting case law 2001 in United States case law Congressional districts of North Carolina Legal history of North Carolina 2001 in North Carolina United States Supreme Court cases {{SCOTUS-stub

See also

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Further reading

External links