Shaw v. Reno
United States Supreme Court
509 U.S. 630 (1993)
Relevant factsFree
After the Attorney General objected under the Voting Rights Act to North Carolina's initial redistricting plan, the state created a second, unusually shaped 160-mile-long majority-black district winding through ten counties; North Carolina residents (plaintiffs) challenged the plan as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, and the district court dismissed the complaint.
IssueFree
Whether a reapportionment plan violates the Equal Protection Clause if it cannot rationally be understood as anything other than an attempt to separate voters based on race and there is not sufficient justification for the separation.