The North Carolina state supreme court likes to play with fire.
Just a few months ago some Republicans were talking about the possibility of impeaching members of that court as it deliberated on whether to strike down legislative maps drawn after the 2020 census as unconstitutional partisan gerrymanders. The court eventually split along partisan lines to strike down the Republican drawn maps, and the case is now before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Today the state court again split along partisan lines in another extraordinary case. The electoral map that the state legislature had drawn after the 2010 census had previously been declared unconstitutional due to racial gerrymanders, but legislators were allowed to be elected and serve out their terms until a new map could be approved. The court today declared that those legislators had only limited authority given the flawed maps and some legislative tasks they were not allowed to perform. Specifically, the majority determined that the legislature was barred from proposing some constitutional amendments. Although the case was remanded back to the trial court for further proceedings, the clear implication is that the state constitutional amendment that had been proposed by that legislature and ratified by the voters that had empowered the legislature to adopt a voter ID law is invalid.
