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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Drawing the Line: NC Citizens Sue Over Redistricting

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Friday, April 10, 2015   

RALEIGH, N.C. - Raleigh Wake Citizens Association and 14 Wake County voters filed a lawsuit in federal court late Thursday, alleging that new local district lines adopted by the state General Assembly this month violate their civil rights.

This month's passage of the county's new district lines is similar to changes in recent years in at least four other North Carolina counties - Duplin, Greene, Lenoir and Pitt. The plaintiffs argue that the new districts shift the population so voters in overpopulated districts have less input than those in smaller districts, and that lawmakers relied too much on racial criteria when drawing new district lines.

"It impacts every citizen," said Beverley Clark, one of the plaintiffs, "because if you're in an overcrowded district, then your vote isn't carrying the same weight as somebody who's in a smaller district."

Defendants in the case include the sponsor of the redistricting bill, state legislative leadership and the Wake County Board of Elections. The new district lines in Wake County, as in other counties, apply to local elections only and not state or federal races.

Supporters of the new Wake districts argue that the redrawn districts help end what can be expensive countywide campaigns that result in a board that mostly lives in Raleigh.

Local redistricting bills also have been introduced this year for Cabarrus, Moore, Stanley and Rockingham counties, and Greensboro.

Anita Earls, executive director of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, which is representing the plaintiffs, said redistricting at the local level represents efforts by Republicans to affect election results at every level of the state.

"We've seen a pattern of large number of changes to districts for city council, school board and county commissions around the state," she said.

In Wake County, the districts were redrawn by the state Legislature after four Democrats were elected to the County Commission last fall.

Clark said she's participating in the suit because she values her voice as a citizen.

"I think that it's very important that when we make changes that affect the political structure of our community, that it be done in a way that uses data and the latest census information," she said, "and that it's done in a really transparent, fair process."

Local redistricting was passed in Guilford County in 2013, but a court stopped certain aspects of the law from going into effect after a lawsuit was filed.

More information is online at southerncoalition.org.


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