Gerrymandering Goes to Court, Again
Tues., Nov. 30: The clock is ticking + Mark Robinson's short fuse + the reality of the critical race theory crackdown
CORRECTION: Last time, I confidently guessed that Pierce Freelon had to be the first Durham City Council member, if not the first officeholder in North Carolina, to be nominated for a Grammy. As it turns out, he’s neither. Little did I know that the great gospel singer Shirley Caesar served on the Durham City Council from 1987–1991, during which time she was nominated for several Grammys.
» Gerrymandering Goes to Court, Again
Today, the NAACP’s lawsuit challenging the process the North Carolina General Assembly used to draw its new legislative and congressional districts—that is, eliminating consideration of racial data—will go before a three-judge panel of the Wake County Superior Court. The lawsuit asks the court to place the districts on hold until it can hold a trial over the constitutionality of the legislature’s process, which led to the elimination of one of the state’s majority-minority congressional districts.
Republicans say the NAACP is trying to help Democrats. Sen. Ralph Hise: “This same lawsuit outfit [the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, whose lawyers rep the NAACP] sued us previously because we used race, and now they’re suing us because we didn’t use race. The only constant here is finding any excuse to sue to gain partisan advantage, no matter how contradictory.”
Yesterday, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mike Easley, and other former governors filed an amicus brief on the NAACP’s behalf, arguing that the redistricting plan “would result in damage to democracy” and accusing the NCGA of continuing to “warp the North Carolina political process through political gerrymandering.”
There are two other lawsuits in the works, as well. Those directly challenge the constitutionality of the NCGA’s districts—which, by any objective measure, will give the Republicans a massive advantage over the next decade.
As anyone who escaped the 2010s with their brain cells intact recalls, the gerrymanders the General Assembly passed in 2011 were the subject of approximately 234 federal and state lawsuits and several revisions; it seems this show that will never, ever end.
But if the Wake County Superior Court is going to act, it will probably act soon. The candidate filing period for the March primary begins on Monday and runs through Dec. 17.
» WORTH WATCHING
On Nov. 12, chief resident Superior Court Judge Paul Ridgeway—who was among the judges who struck down the legislature’s maps in 2019—asked Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Newby to appoint a new judge to lead the three-judge panel overseeing the gerrymandering lawsuit. In a letter, Ridgeway said that because he will appear on the ballot this year, “even the slightest concern about my impartiality in this regard would be an unnecessary distraction.” Newby chose a Republican-appointed judge to fill Ridgeway’s spot.
» RELATED
On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear NCGA leaders’ request to intervene in a state lawsuit over voter ID. Because of a provision they tucked into the budget, if the court rules in their favor, Attorney General Josh Stein will be prohibited from settling the lawsuit without Senate leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore signing off.
Read the N&O’s story here.
» Meanwhile, in NC-6 …
Assuming the court doesn’t re-scramble everything, we’ll soon know who’s running in the Sixth Congressional District. But since the last time I’ve written on the subject, state Sen. Mike Woodard changed his mind, opting not to run and throwing his support behind fellow state Sen. Valerie Foushee instead.
Last week, I asked Woodard what happened. He hasn’t responded to my email.
The only remaining question mark is former state Sen. Floyd McKissick. He hasn’t yet responded to the message I sent last night.
Foushee has consolidated a lot of endorsements since announcing her run, especially in Orange and Chatham Counties (see below).
I’ve heard some intriguing behind-the-scenes details I’ll try to nail down, hopefully for later this week.
» Robinson Loses It
In all likelihood, a year from now, Mark Robinson will be the presumptive Republican nominee for governor and the de facto leader of the North Carolina Republican Party. Atavistic and Trumpian, Robinson will have no problem ginning up the base. But I wonder whether he’ll put the most attractive face on Phil Berger’s agenda. And incidents like the one last night make me wonder whether Berger is going to want him anywhere near the 2024 ballot.
At 6:40 p.m., Sen. Natasha Marcus tweeted this video:
The video, I’m told, captured the tail end of Robinson scolding Sen. Julia Mayfield for making a statement on the Senate floor that, in so many words, criticized politicians for gay-bashing. Robinson took offense, though I’m not entirely sure why. He’s made clear, on several occasions, that he thinks gay people are icky.
Here’s the N&O’s account:
Robinson “berated” state Sen. Julie Mayfield, a Democrat from Asheville, after her speech and wagged his finger in front of her face, saying he didn’t appreciate her “equating Black people with gay people,” according to Mayfield and another lawmaker who witnessed the encounter.
Robinson’s comments were in response to a speech Mayfield gave after a legislative vote Monday. In that speech, Mayfield highlighted deadly violence against Black people and discrimination against LGBTQ people.
“It is convenient fiction that we can say something in a particular forum and not expect to be held accountable for those words in another,” Mayfield said, referring to several instances in which Robinson has made anti-LGBTQ comments and made national headlines. “We are elected officials. And if we can’t respect our constituents rather than viciously attack some of them, then maybe we’re in the wrong job.”
Robinson declined to talk about the conversation, telling the N&O they would just twist it anyway.
One Senate Dem texted me last night:
“Robinson is going to get someone killed with his homophobic bigotry. He can’t contain himself when he’s challenged by anyone. He stormed out of a committee room when Sen. [Jay] Chaudhuri challenged him [during] his goofy critical race theory hearing.”
» Speaking of Critical Race Theory
I wrote a lot about Robinson’s school indoctrination task force when it released its report in August—and about HB 324, the companion anti-critical race theory measure Berger pushed through the General Assembly.
The legislation wasn’t a serious attempt at governing; it had no enforcement mechanism, for starters. It was, however, a serious political statement aimed at the GOP’s base and white suburban voters. It existed so that Democrats would vote against it. They did. Governor Cooper vetoed the bill in September.
But if you want to see how CRT legislation would play out in the real world, look west, to Tennessee, where the right-wing group Moms for Liberty filed the first complaint under that state’s law. The Department of Education rejected the complaint, though on a technicality. The target of the complaint itself, a second-grade literary curriculum called Wit and Wisdom, gives the game away.
Like North Carolina’s bill, Tennessee’s law prohibits the teaching of a number of superficially anodyne concepts, including that a meritocracy is racist or sexist or that people bear responsibility for their ancestors’ words or deeds. But see what that looks like in practice:
What’s wrong with those books?
The MLK book shows “photographs of white firemen blasting black children to the point of ‘bruising their bodies and ripping off their clothes’”—historically accurate images, in other words.
What else?
The complaint—read it yourself if you don’t believe me—goes on like this, pointing to historically accurate events (firefighters turned their hoses on Black kids) and widely accepted ideas (Bull Connor was a bad guy) that these (white) parents would rather their (white) children not know about.
“Some children,” they claimed, “are seeing counselors to overcome to emotional trauma inflicted upon them by what they learned in Tennessee public schools.”
Just my opinion, but if kids are traumatized by basic, accurate descriptions of history—this isn’t exactly Dan Carlin detailing the grotesque indignities of a World War I trench—that’s an argument for teaching more of it, not less. Ignoring the past doesn’t make it go away, nor does it make its legacy disappear.
Responding to the complaint, the department noted that it “has not made a determination regarding the merits of these allegations.” The complaint was filed in July over materials taught in the last school year; the law only covers stuff taught in the 2021-22 school year.
» Six More Headlines
The Durham police association pointed out that the department was short-staffed on Black Friday, though it’s not clear how more cops throughout the city would have prevented a shooting at the Southpoint mall Macy’s. (WRAL)
For the low, low price of $10 million, the city of Raleigh will consider naming part of Dix Park after you. (Alternatively, coming soon: The Gipson Play Plaza at Dix Park.) (Triangle Business Journal, sub. required)
The Pilot Mountain blaze has spread to about 500 acres. (N&O)
Thirty-eight UNC Schools of the Arts alumni have now said they were sexually abused at the school, naming as alleged predators a violinist accused of federal trafficking charges, a famous ballerina, and a professor who has criticized the school’s handling of the debacle. (N&O)
In testimony, former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes accused her ex-business partner, Sunny Bulwani, of controlling behavior and sexual abuse. (WaPo)
Pfizer will seek COVID vaccine booster authorization for 16- and 17-year-olds, and will probably get it. (WaPo)