North Carolina black caucus to join GOP suit against redistricting
The Wilmington Journal reports:
The NC Black Leadership Caucus has announced that it will file a ''friend of the court'' brief in GOP litigation against the recently adopted Legislative redistricting plan, claiming that it reduces African American representation in the state House and Senate by slashing the number of voting age Blacks in so-called ''majority-minority'' districts in violation of federal law.NCBLC President Larry Hall, a Durham attorney, discussed the group's intentions during its January 17 meeting in Raleigh.
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Given the recently adopted Legislative redistricting plan, Hall maintains that the percentage of voting age African Americans in so-called ''majority-minority'' districts has consistently been slashed over the past decade and last two redistricting plans, thus putting Black legislative representation in these districts at risk.
For instance, Rep. Howard Hunter [D-Northhampton] has had both his Black voting age population lashed by 10 percentage points, and the lines changed in his District 5, so much so that there is no longer a guarantee that he or any other African American would win a legislative race if challenged by a white.
''That will end up with us giving up a seat,'' Hall predicts.