A judge has rejected claims that voters in two North Carolina legislative districts were the victims of racial gerrymandering.
U.S. District Judge James Dever ruled on Sept. 30 that Republicans did not illegally manipulate the boundaries of the two northeastern state districts to favor candidates.
The case stemmed from a suit against the GOP legislative leaders in November 2023, brought by two plaintiffs, one of whom is now a Democratic state House member.
The pair claimed that the state Senate districts, as approved by the General Assembly, were illegal.
According to the suit, they argued that the map violated Section 2 of the U.S. Voting Rights Act via race-based discrimination, and that lawmakers should have created a majority-black district instead of the current districts. …