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Below you will find an update from NCGOP's Legal Team regarding Republican efforts to fight the court-imposed replacement of the General Assembly's Congressional Map. The NCGOP is pursuing all available legal remedies to overturn the judicial activism plaguing North Carolina citizens and their electoral process.

Redistricting Legal Update

Republican legislative leaders and the NCGOP are pursuing all available legal remedies to overturn the judicial activism plaguing North Carolina citizens. We will not rest until all legal remedies are exhausted. Today, our Republican-led General Assembly filed an emergency appeal with the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS). 

By ordering the replacement of a duly enacted Congressional Map drawn by the legislature with a map drawn in secret by anti-GOP proponents, activist judges have taken a sledgehammer to our Constitution and the Rule of Law. While NC House and NC Senate maps were deemed compliant with the court’s previous order, the Congressional Map was singled out by biased Special Masters and their “assistants” (who were caught cheating for Democrats) as non-compliant.

The Constitution is clear: the state legislature is to draw congressional maps. If these judges want to draw maps, they should file as a candidate for the state house or state senate.  

“If a redistricting process more violative of the U.S. Constitution exists, it is hard to imagine it.” -NCGA Application to SCOTUS for Emergency Stay

The remedial Congressional Map proposed enacted by the legislature had a mean-median score of approximately -0.61%. The efficiency gap is approximately -5.3%. Both of those scores are well within the court's requirements for a presumptively constitutional map: <1% and <7%, respectively. Only by changing the rules in the middle of the game could such maps be deemed non-compliant, and replaced with a Democrat gerrymander.

Interestingly, these Special Masters claim they were only “amend[ing] the Legislative Defendant’s plan to enhance its consistency with the opinion of the Supreme Court of North Carolina, the [Constitution] and the expressed will of the General Assembly.” Enhancing “consistency” is not a valid legal ground for overturning a map that falls within the prescribed range. 

Moreover, the idea that unelected Special Masters could somehow “enhance [the map’s] consistency with . . . the expressed will of the General Assembly” is absolutely ludicrous. The General Assembly’s will was clearly expressed when they enacted the Congressional Map.

Just hours after Republicans appealed this hijacking to the N.C. Supreme Court, and to little surprise, the Democrat-majority high court further corrupted the Rule of Law by rejecting their appeal and solidifying the unconstitutional imposition of the court-drawn Congressional Map on the People of North Carolina.

“This Court should put a stop to the North Carolina judiciary’s usurpation of the General Assembly’s specifically enumerated constitutional authority to regulate the manner of congressional elections. Anything less will surrender North Carolina’s 2022 elections to a congressional map that palpably violates the U.S. Constitution, rewarding judicial activism of the most brazen kind.” - NCGA Application to SCOTUS for Emergency Stay

Such egregious examples of judicial activism are not going unchallenged. In response to the General Assembly’s emergency appeal, NCGOP Chairman Michael Whatley stated the following:

“We applaud the Republican legislative leaders of the North Carolina General Assembly for filing this appeal to the US Supreme Court. The Constitution is clear - the authority to draw political maps lies with the Legislature, not the courts." - NCGOP Chairman Michael Whatley

Democrats are only able to run roughshod over the Constitution and ram through unearned political gains to push their radical agenda because they have activist judges in place who are willing to legislate from the bench. Our legal fight is being waged today, but if we are to restore the Constitutional order over the long term North Carolina MUST elect conservative judges who respect the Constitution and Rule of Law. 

Thank you,

--NCGOP Communications Team