So here's a question I have: the 4th circuit is pretty liberal as of now. If the Republicans flip the state Supreme Court back and gerrymander the congressional districts again, why wouldn't the Democrats sue in federal court regarding the new NC-02 (old NC-01)? I realize the NAACP already sued because the legislature didn't use racial data but this seems less persuasive than simply saying that a district could have been drawn in Northeast North Carolina that would reliably elect the candidate of choice of the black population and it wasn't. Because of the 4th circuit I'd imagine success here would be more likely than the Texas or Alabama lawsuits. What would be the chances of a lawsuit like this?
Federal court doesn’t work because it ends up before the Supreme Court, who already ruled on the issue. Besides, even if the judges on the federal bench were all partisan hacks, it would be a pretty awful look to issue an opinion that directly flew in the face of a prior Supreme Court decision.
Basically SCOTUS said that gerrymandering litigation needs to be contained to the state level, so that’s why all of these lawsuits are now handled by state supreme courts.
