Surprise—the three-judge panel rejected Republican legal opposition and officially appointed Stanford Law School professor Nathaniel Bersily as ‘special master’ to review and possibly redraw North Carolina legislative districts deemed unconstitutional.
The key point here is the judges panel stated that Persily look only at race data —as opposed to election results—when examining the districts in question—two of which–Senate District 28 and House District 57—are in Guilford County. If you have an hour and half, watch Persily’s 2012 lecture at Columbia Law School—it’s quite interesting and informative. If you don’t have that much time, jump in at the 15:00 mark as he breaks down the data used to draw districts—two of the key data points are racial breakdown and election results. So in effect the judges are eliminating one key point Persily can use to determine the districts in question are unconstitutional.
