NC Supreme Court picks dates to rehear voter ID, redistricting cases

The North Carolina Supreme Court will rehear oral arguments in redistricting and voter ID cases in mid-March, according to a calendar posted to their website late last week.

The high court issued rulings on the two cases, authored by the then-Democratic majority, last year. The majority invalidated Republicans’ voter ID law and ruled that the state Senate map used in last year’s elections was an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander.

Republicans gained control of the Supreme Court in last year’s midterms, flipping the court to a 5-2 Republican majority. Republican legislators asked for new hearings in those cases after the election, a request the Supreme Court granted earlier this month.

Justice Anita Earls, one of two Democrats on the court, called the decision to rehear the cases a “display of raw partisanship.” She also noted that the Supreme Court has allowed just two of 214 petitions for rehearing in the past 20 years.

The Supreme Court has heard multiple high-profile cases since the new Republican justices took the bench in January. That new majority appeared skeptical of the voting rights of some 56,000 on probation or parole as part of a felony conviction — a right restored in a Superior Court ruling issued last year — and is currently considering four cases involving racial discrimination in jury selection.

The redistricting case will be heard at 12:45 p.m. on March 14. The justices will hear the voter ID case at 12:45 the next day, March 15.