Eric Holder Statement on Illegally Gerrymandered Maps in North Carolina

Washington, D.C. — Today, Eric H. Holder, Jr., Chairman of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NDRC) & 82nd Attorney General of the United States, issued the following statement on federal judges ruling that North Carolina’s congressional maps are illegally gerrymandered:

“Today’s ruling was just the latest example of the courts telling state legislators in North Carolina that citizens should be able to pick their representatives, instead of politicians picking their voters. It’s long past time for the legislature to produce fair maps that represent the diverse communities of North Carolina.”

The National Redistricting Foundation (NRF), an affiliate of NDRC, supported the voters in Cooper v. Harris, a case in which the Supreme Court affirmed the district court’s ruling that two districts in North Carolina’s 2011 congressional maps were unconstitutional racial gerrymanders. As a result of the court’s ruling, Republicans were forced to draw a new map. That new map was struck down today as an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander.