Cooper v. Harris

On May 22, 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Cooper v. Harris, a pivotal racial gerrymandering case. North Carolina's Republican-led legislature redrew congressional districts in 2011, concentrating Black voters into Districts 1 and 12. Plaintiffs, including David Harris, challenged the maps as unconstitutional. The Court held that race was the predominant factor in drawing those districts, and the state failed the strict scrutiny test, violating the Equal Protection Clause. The state's justification—that it was complying with the Voting Rights Act—was rejected for lacking a strong evidentiary basis. The majority opinion, authored by Justice Elena Kagan, affirmed the lower court's ruling and required the districts to be redrawn. The case addressed Governor Roy Cooper's appeal and reinforced judicial limits on the use of race in redistricting.

In a 5-3 decision, the Supreme Court affirmed the district court's judgment, holding that North Carolina's Congressional District 1 and District 12 were unconstitutional racial gerrymanders. The case was remanded for further proceedings, requiring the state to redraw the invalidated districts.

Whether North Carolina's 2011 congressional redistricting plan unconstitutionally sorted voters based on race as the predominant factor, and whether the state could justify the racial classifications as reasonably necessary to satisfy the Voting Rights Act.

The ruling significantly tightened judicial scrutiny of racial considerations in redistricting, making it more difficult for states to claim Voting Rights Act compliance as a blanket defense. It emboldened voting rights advocates to challenge maps nationwide, solidified the precedent that race cannot be the predominant redistricting factor without a compelling, narrowly tailored justification, and deepened public and political discourse on fair electoral representation.