Hood-May 2002 CJ
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• Coming This Fall: • State Wolfs Down More School Choice C A R O L I N A $65 Million Hotel Stewed in Brunswick Plying the Seas of Glory Volume 11, Number 5 A Monthly Journal of News, May 2002 Analysis, and Opinion from JOURNAL the John Locke Foundation www.CarolinaJournal.com www.JohnLocke.org Supreme Court Decision Shakes Up N.C. Politics, Experts Say Some analysts, however, don’t see the ‘Activist’ ruling injects ruling as a turning point in state politics. Dr. Andrew Taylor, political science professor competition into elections, at North Carolina State University, said that some observers overestimate the im- say legal, political analysts pact of redistricting in elections. North Carolina has a shifting popula- tion, there has been increased blurring of By RICHARD WAGNER parties in the state, and an increasing num- Editor ber of voters prefer to refrain from declar- and PAUL CHESSER ing any party affiliation, Dr. Taylor said. Associate Editor Taylor disagrees with politicians who RALEIGH claim that redistricting will decide who is olitics in North Carolina may never elected for the next 10 years. “I think that’s be the same in the wake of the N.C. exaggerated,” he said. P Supreme Court’s landmark decision In establishing its reasoning for relying on redistricting, legal scholars and politi- on the whole-county provision, the court cal scientists say. said, “There is a long-standing tradition of That’s a good thing, some of the experts respecting county lines during the redis- said, because North Carolina’s elections tricting process in this State. Indeed, this generally have been a fait accompli since the custom and practice arose hundreds of years days of Reconstruction after the Civil War, before federal limitations were placed upon when Southern backlash to the Radical Re- state redistricting and reapportionment publicans delegated near-total power to the procedures during the 1960s. North Democratic Party for nearly a century. Carolina’s initial state constitution, enacted One analyst said the decision April 30 The North Carolina Supreme Court has transformed the political landscape of the state. in 1776, provided that representation in could enable Republicans to wrest solid both the Senate and the House of Commons control of the state legislature for the first validated the redistricting plan before the litical guidelines, you will almost certainly was based on ‘counties.’” time in more than 100 years. case went to the Supreme Court. The judge allow Republicans to win a majority of The court referred to the use of county “No matter how [Speaker of the House subsequently determined a plan for getting seats,” Arrington said. lines by other states in the drawing of dis- Jim] Black draws these districts, this will new districts drawn as rapidly as possible. tricts: “Other states still utilize a ‘whole clearly help the Republicans,” said Dr. Ted The court, with four Republican justices Increasing political competition county’ criterion and this practice of re- Arrington, professor of political science at holding the majority ruling, one GOP mem- specting political subdivisions in the redis- the University of North Carolina-Charlotte. ber agreeing in part and dissenting else- The ruling should inject some compe- tricting process has been uniformly upheld “It gives them, in my view, a more or less where, and two Democratic justices dissent- tition into a system that for too long inhib- by the United States Government.” permanent advantage. North Carolina has ing, said most House and Senate districts ited democracy in North Carolina, said Dr. However, the complexity of the court’s a natural Republican gerrymander. should have only one member, follow Jack Fleer, professor of political science at ruling leaves plenty of room for further “To the extent this decision mandates county boundaries, have a compact shape, Wake Forest University. interpretation, the experts say. nonpolitical criteria for districts, it gives the and contain roughly equal population. “I think one of the great problems we Four of the five justices ruled that, in Republicans an advantage. I would expect The court rejected a Republican-pro- have in democracy is the absence of com- reality, the whole-county provision doesn’t they could win a majority of seats with 46 posed remedy to create large multimember petition,” he said. “The vigor of public de- always apply to legislative redistricting, to 47 percent of the votes, but I’m only districts that covered several counties. The bate is lessened.” even in counties outside the jurisdiction of guessing,” he said. court cited the U.S. Supreme Court as ob- Most districts drawn by Democrats the federal Voting Rights Act. In the complicated decision released on serving that multimember districts have were noncompetitive — they protected in- The smaller majority (Justice Bob Orr April 30, the court struck down legislative been used to dilute the voting strength of cumbents. “I don’t feel that serves democ- opted out here) found that multimember districts that had been approved by legis- racial minorities. racy well,” Fleer said. districts violated another provision of the lators only a few months before, on Nov. Reflecting the complexity of the ruling, Dr. Michael Curtis, professor of law at state constitution involving equal protec- 13. In ordering the maps redrawn, the court, the justices then held that “the use of both Wake Forest University, also decried the tion under the laws. In doing so, the court referring to the state constitution’s whole- single-member and multimember districts effects of a noncompetitive electoral system. found that the equal-protection clause can- county provision, ruled that the districts within the same redistricting plan violates “The general trend is we don’t have com- celed out the whole-county provision when were unconstitutional because they did not the Equal Protection Clause of the state con- petitive districts and we don’t have demo- the latter would appear to require respect county boundaries where possible. stitution unless it is established that the in- cratic government,” he said. multimember districts in order to keep dis- The court said the legislature should clusion of multimember districts within Dr. Curtis pointed out two main causes tricts as equivalent as possible in popula- have the first opportunity to enact new re- such plan advances a compelling state in- of noncompetitive politics: gerrymandering tion. districting plans. However, if the legislature terest.” and group ownership of the media. Because In its majority opinion, written by Chief fails to approve an acceptable plan or if the Most reliable Democratic votes are con- so many television stations and newspapers Justice Beverly Lake, the court said, “Since plan disrupts the timing of the 2002 gen- centrated in black districts, Dr. Arrington today are governed by corporate dictates, the General Assembly stopped complying eral election, Superior Court Judge Knox said, and redistricting would preclude the they don’t devote the air time or news space Jenkins may redraw the districts. party from using those votes elsewhere in necessary to promote competitiveness in Jenkins made the initial ruling that in- the state. “Drawn along a series of nonpo- political races, he said. Continued as “Supreme Court,” Page 3 Top Local Priority? The John Locke Foundation NONPROFIT ORG. Contents 200 W. Morgan St., # 200 U.S. POSTAGE Raleigh, NC 27601 PAID Affordable Housing 69.7% RALEIGH NC PERMIT NO. 1766 Controlling Sprawl 21.2% Calendar 2 Not Sure 9.1% State Government 3 Education 6 Higher Education 10 Local Government 14 Books & the Arts 18 Opinion 20 % of N.C. Respondents in Oct. 2000 JLF Poll Parting Shot 24 C A R O L I N A Contents ON THE COVER legislation supporting educational options. • North Carolina Citizens for a Sound JOURNAL Page 7 Economy held an informative meeting in • Analysts say the N.C. Supreme Court, in Hickory on property rights issues and river handing down a 4-1-2 decision that invali- • The Children’s Scholarship Fund helped buffers. Page 15 dated a redistricting plan approved by the Ronetta Stewart get her children into General Assembly, might has shaken up Charlotte’s Providence Day School, much • An interview with former U.S. Attorney Richard Wagner politics as usual in the state, which has been to her joy. Page 9 and Charlotte activist Tom Ashcraft. Editor controlled by Democrats since the days of Page 16 Reconstruction. Page 1 HIGHER EDUCATION Paul Chesser, Michael Lowrey THE LEARNING CURVE Associate Editors NORTH CAROLINA • North Carolina State University plans to issue bonds to build a $65 million confer- • George C. Leef reviews the book On Seas •Rep. Fern Shubert, a Republican from ence center and golf course on its Centen- of Glory: Heroic Men, Great Ships, and Epic Sherri Joyner, Erik Root, Union County, will introduce a bill in May nial Campus. Page 10 Battles of the American Navy by former Sec- Jon Sanders to shore up North Carolina’s driver’s licens- retary of the Navy John Lehman. Page 18 Assistant Editors ing standards. Page 4 • The University of California system now admits proportionately more minority stu- • Reviews of Only One Place of Redress by Thomas Paul De Witt • The John Locke Foundation celebrated dents than it did before the UC Regents’ ban David E. Bernstein and Unfree Speech: The Opinion Editor its 12th anniversary at a dinner March 22, on race-preferential admissions in 1998. Folly of Campaign Finance Reform by Brad- and The Weekly Standard’s William Kristol Page 11 ley A. Smith. Page 19 shared his thoughts on the war. Page 4 Andrew Cline, Roy Cordato, • A study by the Independent Women’s OPINION Charles Davenport, Ian Drake, • The state’s computer consultant for elec- Forum of syllabi at 30 major colleges and Tom Fetzer, Nat Fullwood, tronic procurement and its website have universities found that women’s studies • Editorials on corruption in the North John Gizzi, David Hartgen, been associated with problems with other textbooks are riddled with lies and preju- Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles and Lindalyn Kakedelis, George Leef, state governments.