North Carolina Department Of Justice

Again, role of race a focus in NC redistricting

So it's never safe to bet against North Carolina's maps winding up again at the nation's highest court. As a competitive two-party state with dozens of counties covered by special civil rights laws, North Carolina often sees legal challenges with their maps, a redistricting expert said.

"North Carolina has had some of the more famous cases," said Nate Persily, a law and political science professor at Columbia University's law school in New York. "You have the recipe for contested cases following in every redistricting cycle."

As the Republican-led Legislature moves toward the goal of approving new maps by July 28, the redistricting debate points to new arguments that could wind up in court and whether citizens will keep their current incumbents or feel confident they have a chance to influence their successors.

The focus is on whether federal voting rights law obligates mapmakers to draw districts that contain a majority of black voters wherever population patterns allow it, even if black candidates have fared well in districts with minority populations of less than 50 percent.

Republican redistricting leaders equipped with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2009 involving a state House district in Pender County say yes. They argue they must create more districts that contain more black voters than what's set up in current maps created largely by Democrats since 2003.

"We have interpreted that (ruling) to mean a majority-minority seat means 50 percent plus one," said Rep. David Lewis, R-Harnett, chairman of the House Redistricting Committee.

But Democrats and civil rights activists argue that's not what the federal Voting Rights Act and court opinions demand. Instead, they say, Republicans, are actually weakening overall black voting power by concentrating voters in certain districts, leaving surrounding seats with fewer black voters, who historically have favored Democratic candidates.

"It's an extreme form of packing," said House Minority Leader Joe Hackney, D-Orange. "The Republican assertions as to what's required in the Voting Rights Act are simply not correct."

Lewis said the GOP isn't engaged in packing. Still, he and other redistricting committee leaders heard that complaint repeatedly in public hearings late last week seeking response on draft maps for more than 30 black-majority districts.

"These districts appear to be an attempt to use purported compliance with the Voting Rights Act as an excuse to obtain unfair partisan advantage," Ben Griffin, a vice president of the New Hanover County chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said at the hearing.

US Justice Dept. Sues Alamance Co. North Carolina Over Interviews ...

Feds keep harassing this county because the citizens choose to have a 287g program in their county.  This harrassment   going for 3 years, the citizens keep voting the same sheriff into office.

Randy’s Right

http://www.digtriad.com/news/article/180422/57/US-Justice-Dept-Sues-Alamance-Co-Over-Interviews

Burlington, NC– The U.S. Justice Department has sued Alamance County, its sheriff’s office and Sheriff Terry Johnson, saying employees fear retaliation if they talk with federal investigators looking into allegations of discriminatory policing and discriminatory searches and seizures.

A news release issued Thursday says the department is seeking a judicial declaration that its attorneys can interview particular sheriff’s department employees outside the presence of the lawyer for the sheriff’s office. It says that’s necessary because numerous current and former sheriff’s office employees are scared to talk.

Alamance County Manager Craig Honeycutt tells WFMY News 2 that Sheriff Terry Johnson received a call around 4pm Thursday saying they were being served by the Justice Department. The Sheriff’s Department and the County had not yet received the paperwork.

Honeycutt said he would not comment on the lawsuit until he had the opportunity to read over the paperwork.

The department says it sued after all other measures failed. It says it’s worked since July 2010 to get the sheriff’s office to comply voluntarily.

I don’t know how to get intouch with county attorneys but if anybody does you could ask them to call the Heritage foundation or the alliance defense fund or american center for law and justice all three of these firms are conservative christian legal firms .. and are activily involved in issues where state right and countyies right are be ing violated by either their own states laws or federal laws ..just as states use 10th amendment counties have same representation as individuals .

The general statutes of North Carolina, Replacement volume, containing general laws of North Carolina through the legislative session of ... [year] Prepared under the supervision of the Department of Justice of the State of North Carolina. Annotated, under the supervision of the Department of Justice by the editorial staff of the publishers under the direction of D. W. Parrish, Jr. [and others]

North Carolina manual

A state department of justice for North Carolina

In the matter of the republic of Cuba vs. the state of North Carolina, for recovery upon certain fraudulent bonds issued during the reconstruction period. Record of the proceedings in the Supreme court of the United States, and other documents

Black Wilmington and the North Carolina way, portrait of a community in the era of civil rights protest