HARPER v. HALL

No. 413PA21.

868 S.E.2d 499 (2022)

2022-NCSC-17

Rebecca HARPER; Amy Clare Oseroff; Donald Rumph; John Anthony Balla; Richard R. Crews; Lily Nicole Quick; Gettys Cohen, Jr.; Shawn Rush; Jackson Thomas Dunn, Jr.; Mark S. Peters; Kathleen Barnes; Virginia Walters Brien; and David Dwight Brown v. Representative Destin HALL, in his official capacity as Chair of the House Standing Committee on Redistricting; Senator Warren Daniel, in his official capacity as Co-Chair of the Senate Standing Committee on Redistricting and Elections; Senator Ralph Hise, in his official capacity as Co-Chair of the Senate Standing Committee on Redistricting and Elections; Senator Paul Newton, in his official capacity as Co-Chair of the Senate Standing Committee on Redistricting and Elections; Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives, Timothy K. Moore; President Pro Tempore of the North Carolina Senate, Philip E. Berger; the North Carolina State Board of Elections; and Damon Circosta, in his official capacity North Carolina League of Conservation Voters, Inc.; Henry M. Michaux, Jr.; Dandrielle Lewis; Timothy Chartier; Talia Fernós; Katherine Newhall; R. Jason Parsley; Edna Scott; Roberta Scott; Yvette Roberts; Jereann King Johnson; Reverend Reginald Wells; Yarbrough Williams, Jr.; Reverend Deloris L. Jerman; Viola Ryals Figueroa; and Cosmos George v. Representative Destin Hall, in his official capacity as Chair of the House Standing Committee on Redistricting; Senator Warren Daniel, in his official capacity as Co-Chair of the Senate Standing Committee on Redistricting and Elections; Senator Ralph E. Hise, Jr., in his official capacity as Co-Chair of the Senate Standing Committee on Redistricting and Elections; Senator Paul Newton, in his official capacity as Co-Chair of the Senate Standing Committee on Redistricting and Elections; Representative Timothy K. Moore, in his official capacity as Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives; Senator Philip E. Berger, in his official capacity as President Pro Tempore of the North Carolina Senate; The State of North Carolina; The North Carolina State Board of Elections; Damon Circosta, in his official capacity as Chairman of the North Carolina State Board of Elections; Stella Anderson, in her official capacity as Secretary of the North Carolina State Board of Elections; Jeff Carmon III, in his official capacity as Member of the North Carolina State Board of Elections; Stacy Eggers IV, in his official capacity as Member of the North Carolina State Board of Elections; Tommy Tucker, in his official capacity as Member of the North Carolina State Board of Elections; and Karen Brinson Bell, in her official capacity as Executive Director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

Filed February 14, 2022.


Attorney(s) appearing for the Case

Patterson Harkavy LLP, by Narendra K. Ghosh , Chapel Hill, Burton Craige , Raleigh, and Paul E. Smith , Chapel Hill; Elias Law Group LLP, by Abha Khanna , Lalitha D. Madduri , Jacob D. Shelly , and Graham W. White ; and Arnold and Porter Kaye Scholer LLP, by Elisabeth S. Theodore , R. Stanton Jones , and Samuel F. Callahan , for Harper plaintiff-appellants.

Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson, P.A., by Stephen D. Feldman , Raleigh, John R. Wester , Adam K. Doerr , Charlotte, and Erik R. Zimmerman , Chapel Hill; and Jenner & Block LLP, by Sam Hirsch , Jessica Ring Amunson , Zachary C. Schauf , Karthik P. Reddy , and Urja Mittal , for North Carolina League of Conservation Voters, Inc. plaintiff-appellants.

Southern Coalition for Social Justice, by Hilary H. Klein , Allison J. Riggs , Mitchell Brown , Katelin Kaiser , Jeffrey Loperfido , and Noor Taj ; and Hogan Lovells US LLP, by J. Tom Boer and Olivia T. Molodanof , for Common Cause plaintiff-appellant.

North Carolina Department of Justice, Raleigh, by Amar Majmundar , Senior Deputy Attorney General, and Terence Steed , Mary Carla Babb , and Stephanie A. Brennan , Special Deputy Attorneys General, for State defendant-appellees.

Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough, LLP, by Phillip J. Strach , Alyssa M. Riggins , John Branch , Raleigh, and Thomas A. Farr ; and Baker & Hostetler LLP, by Katherine L. McKnight and E. Mark Braden , for Legislative Defendants defendant-appellees.

Abraham Rubert-Schewel, Chris Lamar , and Orion de Nevers , for Campaign Legal Center, amicus curiae.

Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd, P.A., by William C. McKinney , Jonathan D. Klett and Sara A. Sykes ; and States United Democracy Center, by Christine P. Sun and Ranjana Natarajan , for former governors, amici curiae.

Poyner Spruill LLP, by Edwin M. Speas Jr. and Caroline P. Mackie , Raleigh, for Buncombe County Board of Commissioners, amicus curiae.

Joshua H. Stein , Attorney General, by Ryan Y. Park , Solicitor General, James W. Doggett , Deputy Solicitor General, and Zachary W. Ezor , Solicitor General Fellow, for Governor Roy A. Cooper II and Attorney General Joshua H. Stein, amici curiae.

Phelps Dunbar LLP, Raleigh, by Nathan A. Huff and Jared M. Burtner , for National Republican Congressional Committee, amicus curiae.

Forward Justice, by Kathleen E. Roblez , Caitlin A. Swain , Daryl V. Atkinson , Ashley M. Mitchell , and Aviance Brown ; and Irving Joyner , Durham, for NC NAACP, amicus curiae.

Poyner Spruill LLP, Raleigh, by Caroline P. Mackie , for Professor Charles Fried, amicus curiae.


¶ 1 Today, we answer this question: does our state constitution recognize that the people of this state have the power to choose those who govern us, by giving each of us an equally powerful voice through our vote? Or does our constitution give to members of the General Assembly, as they argue here, unlimited power to draw...

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