Supreme Court holds off on North Carolina partisan gerrymander case

The Supreme Court on Monday tossed a lower court ruling that North Carolina’s congressional map was an illegal partisan gerrymander and ordered a redo, saying the lower court should figure out whether the plaintiffs had standing to sue.

The justices ordered the lower court to go back and review the case in light of another Supreme Court ruling weeks ago that ordered a court in Wisconsin to take a do-over on a similar partisan gerrymander case.

In the Wisconsin decision, the Supreme Court sidestepped big questions about the constitutionality of extreme partisan gerrymandering and instead said the plaintiffs didn’t show they were personally affected by the maps.

Common Cause, the group that challenged the North Carolina map on behalf of state voters, said it was disappointed in the high court’s refusal to decide the case now. It insisted it had already met the bar of having plaintiffs from every congressional district, saying at least some of them should have been able to prove injury from the GOP-tilted map.

“Justice delayed is justice denied,” said Karen Hobert Flynn, president of Common Cause. “In a democracy, voters should be choosing politicians, and we hope the Supreme Court will make clear with this case that politicians should not be choosing their voters for partisan political gain.”