The Supreme Court agreed on Monday with a lower court ruling that found that Republican lawmakers in North Carolina drew two congressional districts with improper racial considerations in mind. “The Constitution entrusts States with the job of designing congressional districts,” wrote Justice Elena Kagan in the 5-to-3 decision. “But it also imposes an important constraint: A State may not use race as the predominant factor in drawing district lines unless it has a compelling reason.”The court concluded that the two districts, which, following the 2010 census, were drawn to pack a higher percentage of voting-age black voters into them, violated this principle. Kagan was joined in her majority opinion by Justices Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor. To illustrate their unusual shapes, Kagan’s opinion included an appendix with images of the challenged districts, one of which was described as “snakelike.”

Source: Huffington Post May 22, 2017 14:58 UTC