Dem
51
GOP
49
As you know, all state Supreme Courts take an oath to do whatever their party wants of them. What? Did we get this wrong? You're right. They don't take an oath. They just do it anyway. Last year, the North Carolina Supreme Court threw out a highly gerrymandered U.S. House map that would have given the Republicans 11 seats to the Democrats' 3 in a 50-50 state. Since then, something changed. Two Republicans won election to the Supreme Court, giving the red team a 5-2 majority. And just a few months after the previous ruling, the justices are taking on the map again. Strange? Of course not. Many state Supreme Court justices are just politicians in robes these days.
On Tuesday, oral hearings were held on the case. Three Republican justices made it clear that they would be happy to ditch the map used last November, which allowed the Democrats to capture seven of the fourteen seats, for the gerrymandered one that would probably result in a 11R, 3D delegation. And note that the only thing that happened between the previous ruling and Tuesday is that the composition of the Court changed. There were no population changes or anything like that. Just a different balance on the Court. The Court's motto should be: "We can do whatever we want because we have the votes." (V)