This year saw the election of two new justices to the Supreme Court of North Carolina, which resulted in a move toward the Republican side of the court.
On Friday, the North Carolina Supreme Court, which is controlled by Republicans, overruled a previous ruling against gerrymandered districting. However, the court did not strike down a law requiring voters to provide picture identification.
The newly established court’s recent ruling on partisan gerrymandering, in which conservatives have a 5-2 advantage, is expected to streamline the process for the Republican-controlled legislature. This will give the Republican Party an advantage in the competition for additional seats in the United States House of Representatives in the elections that will take place in 2024.
When the ideological balance of the court shifted to the Democrats in December, the court overturned a Republican-backed state legislature’s map for the Senate while upholding trial judges’ maps for the House of Representatives. This occurred despite the fact that the ideological balance of the court had previously been balanced in favor of the Republicans.
The decision from February 2022 that provided the framework for the finding in December 2022 ruled that state courts have the authority to reject legislative district lines if such borders give an unjustifiable advantage to one political party in a state where the election is likely to be close.
