Maps
frtim page At
Associate Justice Antonin
Scalia last weekend right
" after the High Court had
been petitioned by state
lawmakers to stay the
lower court order, and very
little is clear until Friday.
"There is no indication
that Scalia's- vote would
make a difference in the
decision regarding a stay,"
says Irving Joyner, law
professor at North Carolina
Central University's
School of Law in Durham.
"Chief Justice [John]
Roberts [who hears emer
gency requests from the
U.S. Fourth Circuit] can
make this decision without
consulting with other mem
bers of the court, although
his practice has been to
consult the full court when
stays have been requested
in other voting rights
cases."
Lawyers for the plain
tiffs filed their arguments
Tuesday with the 1/.S.
Supreme Court as to why
the appellate court order
should not be stayed.
"Simply put, a choice
between forcing millions of
North Carolinians to vote
in yet another election
under the unconstitutional
enacted plan, and taking
the administrative steps
necessary to hold a consti
tutional election in 2016 ?
including delaying the con
gressional primary election
as necessary ? is no
choice at all," wrote Marc
Elias, plaintiffs' attorney.
If Roberts doesn't issue
a stay before Friday, then
the appellate court order
stands, and the state is
compelled to submit
newly-drawn maps by
Friday. If the chief jostice
does consult the full court,
and it comes back 4-4 with
Justice Scalia gone, then
the same result applies.
However, if Roberts
were to answer state law
makers' prayers and stay
the lower court order on his
own, that means the March
15 primaries would pro
ceed under the current
maps.
That would not please
the N.C. NAACP, which
hasn't gotten very far with
its own state court chal
lenges to the 2011 redis
tricting lines. The civil
rights organization has
applauded the appellate
court order stemming from
a federal lawsuit filed by
three independent plaintiffs
in the First and Third
Districts, and this week,
blasted "extremist"
Republican legislative
leaders for wasting literally
half of the two-week dead
line period they were given
to redraw the two unconsti
tutional districts doing
nothing, only to follQW-up
in the final week with hear
ings, and a two-day joint
session today and Friday.
"These hearings are
cynical attempts to create
the impression that the
redrawn maps had no sig
nificant public opposition,"
charged Rev. William
Barber, president of the
N.C.NAACP. " In short,
the extremists are produc
ing a farce, now that their
maps have been called
absurd."
Barber wants the March
IS primaries pushed back
to May, where they origi
nally were before this year.
He added that waiting until
the week of to first hold
statewide hearings, and
then meet Thursday and
Friday without getting pub
lic input on the newly con
figured maps, was "evi
dence that our extremist
leaders continue to act in
bad faith."
If Republican leaders
were hoping to use
statewide hearings Monday
that were abruptly called
for last Friday afternoon
after 5 p.m. with little pub
lic notice as a cover, it may
have backfired. According
to published reports, those
who agreed with the appel
late court's decision to
strike down the First and
Twelfth districts outnum
bered the opposition 2-1,
with many blaming law
makers not only for the
maps, but the confusion
caused by moving up the
primaries by two months.
State lawmakers report
ed bfegan redrawing the
maps Tuesday considering
the testimony drawn from
Monday's hearings. Unless
the U.S. Supreme Court
says otherwise, the N.C.
General Assembly is
scheduled to convene today
and Friday for votes on the
new maps.
I 111 lilWli I ill 111 I 111 l Tifnn T Till - TrTTOHniirW ?a??
- Photo by Tevin Stinson
Local NAACP chapter President Isaac Howard greets people as they board the bus headed to Raleigh for the Moral March on Saturday, Feb. 13
March
from page AI
requirement that those without one must fill out a "reasonable impediment" excuse in*
order to cast a provisional ballot, which could still be challenged and thrown out.
In his remarks before the Moral Marchers, Rev. Barber reiterated that the N.C.
NAACP will continue voter restriction laws in the courts, and in the streets.
"The fight for voting rights is personal for me," Rev. Barber said, recounting how his
family has had to fight for them all of his life. "And it is a battle that we will not turn
back from now."
The vote is at the "heart of our democracy," Barber said. "This is why we're so con
cerned, when politics is more a struggle over money and manipulation, than a struggle
over of ideas."
Rev. Barber said when politicians suppress the vote, they want the people to become
"slaves to their decisions without citizens having the ability to register their discontent at
the ballot box.
"Any politicians who try to suppress the vote are committing a crime against democ
racy," Barber charged, who then blasted the Republican-led state Legislature for ''stack
ing and packing" black voters into the First and Twelfth Congressional Districts, a move
the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has now ruled to be unconstitutional, and law
makers are scrambling to fix by Feb. 19 for the March 15 primaries.
"When you want to decrease and suppress voter participation so you can rule by
default; when you draw racially motivated redisricting political maps that segregate
black voters and disallow black and white people and Latino voters from coming togeth
er to elect candidates of their choice. That's a crime against democracy! And we must
fight back!" declared Rev. Barber.
"We suggest [lawmakers] repent now and begin keeping their promise to protect and
defend the Constitution," Barber continued. He rattled off a laundry list of what he called
repressive laws that have made it easier to purchase a gun than to vote; hurt the state's
environment; and made it harder for the unemployed to find work.
"We have come to serve notice, that we will unleash every political, legal, and moral
strategy that we can to create the New South. We will not go back," Rev. Barber said.
"The more you try to suppress the right to vote, the more we will register and vote,"
he continued. "You can't stop the people. We will win. You can't stop the flow of
democracy. You can't take government of the people, by the people, from the people.
You can't stop truth. You can't stop justice. You can't stop right. We will rise up. It's on
now."
People from Winston-Salem
travel to Raleigh for march
BY TEVIN STINSON
THE CHRONICLE !
Below freezing temperatures and a
forecast threatening to dump snow on the
entire state did not stop more than a dozen
people from Winston-Salem from taking
the two-hour bus ride to Raleigh to partic
ipate in the Moral March on Saturday, Feb.
During the march, which was organ
ized by the N.C. NAACP and the Move
Forward Together Movement, thousands
of people took to the streets to voice their
opinions on a number of issues, including
economic justice, educational equity,
health care expansion and the protection of
voting rights.
Many of those who rode the bus are
members of the Winston-Salem Branch of
the NAACP and Democracy North
Carolina (DNC), a non-partisan organiza
tion that uses research, organizing and
advocacy to increase voter participation,
reduce the influence of big money in poli
tics and achieve a government that is truly
of the people.
DNC field organizer Linda Sutton said
voting is very important to her because so
many people hgve made sacrifices over the
years to assure that everyone has the
opportunity to cast a ballot during elec
tions.
Sutton, who is also a member of the
Community Mobilization Committee,
recently held a meeting at Emmanuel
Baptist Church to discuss the importance
of the upcoming elections and encourage
citizens to get involved.
"Voting has always been an important
topic for me," said Sutton. "Not too long
ago, people of color were not even allowed
to vote. We have to make sure we preserve
that right for younger generations."
www.wschronicle.com