North Carolina: Supreme Court will decide on influence districts
AP reports: The U.S. Supreme Court said yesterday that it will consider whether legislative and congressional districts designed to help minority candidates win office must do so by containing a majority of minority voters.
The case could decide the fate of so-called “influence” districts, drawn in North Carolina and some other states after the 2000 census in areas where minority populations are mostly in the 40- to-50-percent range.
Such districts are preferred by civil-rights leaders, who worry that creating districts with a majority of minority voters forces legislators to pack minority voters into a smaller overall number of districts, reducing their overall voting strength.
A Supreme Court ruling on the legality of “influence” districts is likely to affect how voting boundaries are drawn after the 2010 Census. --
Winston-Salem Journal | U.S. Supreme Court to look at legality of voting districts