The U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision today (4/18/2001) in Hunt v.
Cromartie, involving the ongoing saga of redistricting North Carolina's 12th
Congressional District.  The Court held that the district court's conclusion
that the State violated the Equal Protection Clause in drawing the 1997
boundaries was based on clearly erroneous findings.  In reversing the
district court, the Court described the basic question as "whether the
legislature drew District 12's boundaries because of race rather than
because of political behavior (coupled with tradition, nonracial districting
considerations)."  The Court found that the evidence does not show that
racial considerations predominated in the drawing of District 12's
boundaries because race, in this case, correlates closely with political
behavior.  The challenged majority-minority African American district is a
constitutionally valid result of a redistricting process establishing a safe
Democratic district, where African Americans register and vote Democratic
between 95% and 97% of the time.

The opinion can be found at:

http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/99-1864.ZS.html


Paul Ryan
Center for Governmental Studies
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