THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 12, 1996 TAG: 9605120150
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
The future of North Carolina's two black-majority congressional districts will be in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court next month.
If the high court allows a re-examination of the General Assembly's 1992 creation of the two U.S. House districts, it will ``almost certainly cause disruption in North Carolina's elections,'' said Chief Deputy Attorney General Andrew A. Vanore Jr.
``But we'll be ready if the court orders a review of a lower court action that upheld redistricting in the 1st and 12th Congressional Districts,'' Vanore said last week.
During the General Assembly's 1992 reapportioning under U.S. Voting Rights guidelines, the 1st and 12th Districts were redrawn with black voter majorities.
As a result, 1st District Rep. Eva M. Clayton, D-Warren, and 12th District Rep. Mel Watt, D-Mecklenburg, became the first AfricanAmericans to be elected to Congress from North Carolina since the turn of the century.
Both Watt and Clayton are running for third terms in November.
But a group of Republicans led by former chief U.S. Military Judge Robinson Everett of Durham have for several years and in several courts challenged the redistricting that sent Clayton and Watt to Congress.
Before its recess at the end of June, the U.S. Supreme Court is to rule on Everett's latest move to throw out a ruling by a three-judge U.S. Court in Raleigh. The Raleigh court held that the black-tilted 1st and 12th Districts were legal and not gerrymandered to favor minority candidates.
Everett and other Republicans have argued that whites are discriminated against. To achieve African-American voting preponderance, the General Assembly used computers to map and connect black voter concentrations in the strangely shaped new election districts.
Watts' 12th District snakes down I-85 between Durham and Charlotte and in some places the district is no wider than the highway. Clayton's 1st District looks like what one legislator called ``a Rorschach blot'' spattered down eastern North Carolina from the Virginia border to the South Carolina line.
In 1992, Everett lost his first effort to throw out the new districts when a U.S. Court in North Carolina decided the 1st and 12th Congressional District voting plans were legal. Everett's new Supreme Court motion will argue that he and his co-petitioners are entitled to a trial to prove their case.
``We just don't know what will happen this time, but we're optimistic,'' Everett said on Friday.
When the Supreme Court first examined the controversial North Carolina redistricting, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said the new black Congressional districts ``have an uncomfortable resemblance to political apartheid.''
Voting with the O'Connor majority in the earlier Supreme Court decision were Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, and Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. All remain on the Supreme Court.
The court has changed since O'Connor made her comment in the first five-to-four decision. All the justices voting with O'Connor were named by Republican presidents.
Since then, President Clinton has named Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer to the court. They replaced retiring Justices Harry A. Blackmun and William J. Brennan Jr.
``Any court review or action on North Carolina redistricting will eventually have an effect on the voting process in our state,'' Vanore said.
``And even if the courts make every effort to impose orderly voting changes it's bound to be disruptive,'' he added.
Edwin M. Speas Jr., another senior Deputy Attorney General who will defend the present districts in any new court fight with Everett, said last week he was preparing for other developments in the controversy.
``The court could take several actions besides ordering a lower court review,'' Speas said.
``The court itself could order changes in the North Carolina election districts.
``Or the court could tell the legislature to do it all over again and get rid of a bad plan.
``Or the court can do nothing and let the districts stand.''
Speas pointed out that similar redistricting cases are in the courts in Georgia and in Texas.
``There's a lot of similarity in all of these cases,'' Speas said.
KEYWORDS: REAPPORTIONMENT by CNB