The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Friday to bring to an end the lower court ruling, which demands North Carolina legislators to draw a new congressional map. This allegedly means that the House primary elections will not occur next month as planned and are rescheduled on June.
According to ABC NEWS, the rejection of the request by the state of North Carolina lawyers for the justices to intervene the redistricting ruling came just hours after Republican lawmakers conducted a meeting in Raleigh, which voted to redraw the boundaries. The move will allegedly comply with a federal court ruling that called the majority of the black districts racial gerrymanders.
The General Assembly called for a regathering and passing of a new map since a three-judge panel had already ordered such replacement by Friday. But then the state lawyers argued that the absentee ballots already were being requested for the March 15 primary election schedule. They also appealed that blocking districts used since 2011 would bring about electoral chaos and a costly separate House primary.
As a customary, the Supreme Court declined to release the tally of votes for the decision. But then an election law expert revealed that before Justice Antonin Scalia's death, the court would have granted the stay. "Before the death of Justice Scalia, I had thought the Court would grant the stay, not because there would be a majority of justices who would necessarily agree on the merits, but because there were likely at least five who would see the problem of changing the rules so close to the election," stated Rick Hasen, professor of law and political science at the University of California Irvine School of Law, via CNN.
However, the voters who filed the case over the boundaries claimed that they should not have to go through the process of voting in illegal districts for another election cycle, just like in the years 2012 and 2014. St. Paul's Review reported that the decision to decline the ruling, which is a one-sentence decision that said Chief Justice John Roberts had referred the appeal to the entire court, would mean that the congressional primary elections are now set to pursue on June 7. These elections will be under the new boundaries that put two incumbents in the same district and would jeopardize the re-election of the Democratic Rep. Alma Adams in the Republican district.
Meanwhile, those who made an appeal could ask the judges to reassess the new maps for compliance with their order. The judges could also hold a new hearing themselves.
