League of Women Voters of North Carolina v. Rucho

In September of 2016, with representation from the Southern Coalition for Social Justice and Campaign Legal Center, the League of Women Voters of North Carolina filed a lawsuit challenging the 2016 remedial congressional redistricting map as an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander and a violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments. This map had been adopted by the North Carolina legislature after one of their earlier maps had been struck down. 

The lawsuit alleged that the map favored some voters and punished others for their political affiliation. In March of 2017, LWV’s case was consolidated by a three-judge district court panel with Common Cause v. Rucho, another case challenging the state’s map. The state attempted to stay the Rucho case pending a US Supreme Court ruling in a Wisconsin redistricting case, Gill v. Whitford (which the League joined as amicus), but the motion was denied. In January 2018, the District Court struck down the map as an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander and prohibited the state from using the map in future elections.  

The case was appealed to the US Supreme Court for consideration. In June 2019, The Supreme Court held that partisan gerrymandering was a nonjusticiable political question. This result bars partisan gerrymandering claims from being brought in federal court, meaning that partisan gerrymandering claims will now have to be litigated in state courts only.