A new federal lawsuit contends that new state Senate districts in eastern North Carolina are racially gerrymandered (Image: ncleg.net)
The two Black northeastern North Carolina voters who wanted the federal courts to move quickly to stop use of what they said were racially gerrymandered districts in a lawsuit they filed back in November won’t receive a trial until February next year.
Rodney Pierce of Halifax County and Moses Matthews of Martin County wanted two state Senate districts that split Black Belt counties in the northeastern part of the state to be redrawn. (Pierce will in all likelihood become a member of the state House next year. He won a Democratic House district primary and faces no opponent in November.)
The lawsuit says the Senate map cracked Black Belt counties and separated Black communities into multiple districts. Doing so diluted Black voting power in violation of the federal Voting Rights Act, the lawsuit said.
Pierce and Matthews repeatedly tried and failed to have federal courts order the districts redrawn before the November general election.
In January, federal District Judge James Dever denied their request to block the Senate districts before the election, writing that they failed to show two of three conditions needed for a determination of vote dilution, NC Newsline has reported.
A federal appeals court decided 2-1 in March that it would not force the Senate to redraw the districts.
Dever on Tuesday set a trial date of Feb. 3.
Two other redistricting lawsuits alleging racial gerrymandering of legislative and congressional districts have been combined and will be heard in federal court next year.
The post NC Senate district racial gerrymandering trial set for February appeared first on NC Newsline.