''Hunt v. Cromartie'', 526 U.S. 541 (1999), was a

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 regarding

North Carolina's 12th congressional district North Carolina's 12th congressional district is a congressional district located in the city of Charlotte and surrounding areas in Mecklenburg County represented by Democrat Alma Adams. Prior to the 2016 elections, it was a gerrymandered distr ...

.. In an earlier case, ''

Shaw v. Reno ''Shaw v. Reno'', 509 U.S. 630 (1993), was a landmark United States Supreme Court case in the area of redistricting and racial gerrymandering. After the 1990 census, North Carolina qualified to have a 12th district and drew it in a distinct snak ...

'', , the Supreme Court ruled that the 12th district of North Carolina as drawn was unconstitutional because it was created for the purpose of placing African Americans in one district, thereby constituting illegal racial

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 ...

. The Court ordered the state of North Carolina to redraw the boundaries of the district. The redrawn 12th district boundaries were then thrown out in a summary judgment by a three judge panel in

Eastern District of North Carolina The United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina (in case citations, E.D.N.C.) is the United States district court that serves the eastern 44 counties in North Carolina. Appeals from the Eastern District of North Caroli ...

. When appealed to the Supreme Court, Justice Thomas wrote for all nine justices saying that the District Court erred in granting summary judgement, while Justice Stevens concurred in an opinion indicating that he and three other justices would have upheld the 12th district as a legal partisan gerrymander. After the case was sent back down, the District Court after a three-day trial again found that the 12th district was an illegal racial gerrymander, resulting in another Supreme Court appeal and the ruling '' Easley v. Cromartie'', . ( Mike Easley replaced Jim Hunt as Governor of North Carolina, resulting in the change of name.) In ''Easley v. Cromartie'', the Supreme Court ruled that the state was able to justify the new boundaries of the 12th district by showing that it was intended to create a safe seat for Democrats, and therefore the redrawn district was a constitutional example of political gerrymandering. Justice O'Connor acted as the swing vote, satisfied with the change in reasoning since ''

,'' despite not joining Justice Stevens' concurrence in the 1999 case.

References

External links

*
North Carolina Redistricting Cases: the 1990s. by the Redistricting Task Force for the National Conference of State Legislatures
American Civil Liberties Union litigation Congressional districts of North Carolina Legal history of North Carolina United States electoral redistricting case law United States equal protection case law United States Supreme Court cases of the Rehnquist Court 1999 in United States case law 1999 in North Carolina United States Supreme Court cases {{SCOTUS-stub

See also

References

Further reading

External links