Cooper v. Harris
United States Supreme Court
137 S. Ct. 1455 (2017)
North Carolina (defendant) redrew District 1 to increase its Black voting-age population from 48.6 to 52.7 percent despite the district already being an extraordinarily safe seat for Black-preferred candidates for twenty years, and separately redrew District 12 to increase its Black voting-age population from 43.8 to 50.7 percent, claiming the change was purely political even though public statements during the process cited racial considerations. Harris (plaintiff) sued alleging equal-protection violations, and the district court invalidated both districts.
Whether, under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, states may, absent sufficient justification, separate its citizens into different voting districts on the basis of race.