Cooper v. Harris: Difference between revisions

2017 United States Supreme Court case

Cooper v. Harris
Full case name	Roy Cooper, Governor of North Carolina, et al., appellants vs. David Harris, et al.
Docket no.	15-1262
Citations	581 U.S. ___ (more)
Prior	Harris v. McCrory, 159 F. Supp. 3d 600 (M.D.N.C. 2016); probable jurisdiction noted, 136 S. Ct. 2512 (2016).
North Carolina relied too heavily on race in redrawing two Congressional districts after the 2010 Census (M.D.N.C. affirmed)
Chief Justice John Roberts Associate Justices Anthony Kennedy · Clarence Thomas Ruth Bader Ginsburg · Stephen Breyer Samuel Alito · Sonia Sotomayor Elena Kagan · Neil Gorsuch
Majority	Kagan, joined by Thomas, Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor
Concurrence	Thomas
Concur/dissent	Alito, joined by Roberts, Kennedy
Gorsuch took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.
U.S. Const. amend. XIV Voting Rights Act of 1965

Cooper v. Harris, 581 U.S. ___ (2017), is a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States in which the Court ruled 5–3 that the North Carolina General Assembly used race too heavily in re-drawing two Congressional districts following the 2010 Census.^[1][2]

Background[edit]

At issue in particular were the 1st and 12th districts. Voters in Mecklenburg County asserted that the 1st was “akin to a Rorschach ink blot,” and that the 12th, though 120 miles long, at times “averag[ed] only a few miles wide.” The 12th had already been a part of several cases that went to the Supreme Court.^[3][4] North Carolina residents being represented by Harris deemed districts 1 and 12 unconstitutional due to the districts being designed as majority black districts after the 1990 census. Districts 1 and 12 were drawn with the black voting-age populations (BVAP) being less than fifty percent; following the 2000 census, both districts continued to vote for candidates preferred by black voters in the next five elections. Nonetheless, the Republican-controlled legislature designed a new map after the 2010 census that again redrew districts 1 and 12 as majority black, thus prompting the present lawsuit.^[5]

On February 5, 2016, the three-judge United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina found that both districts were unconstitutional due to the predominance of racial considerations in their creation, in which Circuit Judge Roger Gregory was joined by Judge Max O. Cogburn Jr., over the dissent of Judge William Lindsay Osteen Jr. regarding District 12.^[6][7]

Supreme Court[edit]

On December 5, 2016, oral arguments were heard before the Supreme Court, where Paul Clement appeared for the governor, Marc Elias appeared for the voters, and an assistant to the U.S. Solicitor General appeared as a friend in support of the voters.^[8] The state argued that the African-American population of the districts was increased in order to comply with the Voting Rights Act of 1965, but the Court found that argument “does not withstand strict scrutiny” for the 1st district, as its African-American population had previously been less than a majority of its voters, yet African-Americans’ “preferred candidates scored consistent victories.”^[9]

On May 22, 2017, the Supreme Court delivered judgment in favor of Harris,^[8] voting 5–3 to affirm the judgment of the district…