Tag Archives: North Carolina

Lisa Sorg, NC Newsline The eternally spinning beach ball. The bottomless hourglass. A frozen computer screen. A lethargic internet connection is not merely an aggravation. It can deepen the socio-economic divide, foreclosing on educational and job opportunities — even quality health care — for underserved communities. President Joe Biden spoke …

Lynn Bonner, NC Newsline A group of Black and Latino voters in North Carolina say in a lawsuit that four of the state’s new congressional districts are racial gerrymanders. They are asking a panel of federal judges to declare it unconstitutional. The lawsuit filed Monday focuses on Districts 1, 6, …

Rob Schofield, NC Newsline Last week, December 1 — was the day North Carolina became the 40th state to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. Roughly 300,000 adults who lacked health insurance last month, now have it. And if officials, providers, and nonprofits do an effective job of outreach …

Lynn Bonner, NC Newsline Two Black northeastern North Carolina residents are suing to invalidate the state Senate redistricting plan approved last month. The federal lawsuit filed Monday claims that the legislature ignored the history of racially polarized voting in northeastern North Carolina, federal law, and a state Supreme Court opinion …

Voting rights advocates in North Carolina are calling on Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper to veto Senate Bill 747 following the Republican-controlled state General Assembly’s passage of the legislation on Wednesday night, with the GOP moving to restrict the use of absentee ballots and take other steps that would “make it …

Lynn Bonner, NC Newsline The US Supreme Court rejected North Carolina Republican legislators’ argument that the state courts cannot review laws legislatures pass governing federal elections. Republican legislators claimed the Elections Clause in the U.S. Constitution makes legislatures the sole state authorities on federal elections law,  including congressional redistricting. Critics …

Lynn Bonner, NC Newsline Voting rights groups and Democrats oppose North Carolina Republican senators’ proposed changes to election laws, saying they will harm elderly, disabled, and student voters, and voters of color. The Senate has proposed two bills changing voting rules and stripping governors of their power to appoint members …

Lynn Bonner, NC Newsline A crowd cheered Gov. Roy Cooper as he vetoed a Republican-authored abortion ban in an unusual rally that capped off a week of attempts to pressure a small group of GOP legislators into letting the veto stand. Some bills are signed in public ceremonies, but bill …

Grace Panetta, Shefali Luthra Originally published by The 19th Republican lawmakers in North Carolina, one of the few Southern states where abortion remains legal and accessible, are proposing a 12-week abortion ban that could further weaken access in the region. Republican legislative leaders in the state recently gained a supermajority …

Kenny Stancil, Common Dreams In what voting rights advocates called a “blatant attack on democracy,” the North Carolina Supreme Court on Friday issued a ruling that allows partisan gerrymandering, reversing earlier decisions that outlawed rigged maps. The ruling enables North Carolina Republicans to redraw state and U.S. congressional districts in …

Lynn Bonner, Missouri Independent North Carolina Republicans appeared to have at least three of the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative justices on their side Wednesday in a case that could determine the future of elections nationwide, and leave decisions about federal elections in the hands of state legislatures and beyond the …

Lynn Bonner, Daily Montanan A U.S. Supreme Court case originating in North Carolina could bring far-reaching changes to elections and the balance of political power in nearly every state. North Carolina Republicans want the nation’s highest court to rule that state courts cannot throw out congressional districts that legislatures draw, …

The latest polls show that the gap between Cheri Beasley and Ted Budd in the North Carolina U.S. Senate race continues to narrow, while the candidates’ differences on key issues have sharpened ahead of what could be their one and only debate. Budd, who avoided debates during an extended and contentious …

by Rob Schofield, Ohio Capital Journal The U.S. Supreme Court announced Thursday that it will hear a North Carolina redistricting case that one prominent constitutional scholar described to the New York Times as “an 800-pound gorilla brooding in the background of election law cases working their way up from state courts.” In Moore …

The House Ethics Committee has launched an investigation into GOP Congressman Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina. The subcommittee will examine whether Cawthorn had an undisclosed interest in a cryptocurrency he promoted. It will also investigate whether he had an improper relationship with a member of his congressional staff. The questions stem …