We know Stanford Law School professor Nathaniel Persily is the special master appointed by the three-judge panel reviewing North Carolina legislative districts that are under a court challenge for allegedly failing to provide “equal protection” to voters under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Two of the nine legislative districts are in Guilford County—Senate District 28 represented by Sen. Gladys Robinson and House District 57 represented by Rep. Pricey Harrison.
The News & Record contacted Persily for its write-up, but he declined to comment. However,UNC Law School professor William Marshall offered this assessment:
“He’s one of the leading voting rights and election experts in the country,” said Marshall, adding that he has known Persily for more than a decade. “He brings a tremendous amount of knowledge and skill, and a stellar reputation for being scrupulous in his work.”
“He’ll go,” Marshall added, “wherever the evidence and the materials that he is reviewing takes him.”
Persily has weighed in on different legal subjects in different media outlets. Watch MSNBC video of Persily weighing in on Donald Trump’s Jr.’s Russian meeting or read his Washington Post op-ed on the Evenwel v. Abbott. Supreme Court case:
In the end, the Evenwel appellants are asking the court to change the constitutional rules of the game just as Latinos are advancing down the field. Almost without exception, states have been drawing districts on the basis of total population rather than voter population since the “one person, one vote” rule was invented. Only now, when the political winners may change, do they claim that the Constitution means something so different that states should not even be permitted to follow time-honored practice.
Stay tuned.
