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Civil Rights Attorney: Supreme Court Ruling Doesn't Rule Out Majority-Minority Districts

Ezra Rozenburg
Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

This week's U.S. Supreme Court ruling on congressional redistricting in North Carolina revolved around the roles of race and politics in the redistricting process.  The Supreme Court justices ruled that North Carolina legislators relied too heavily on race when drawing the state's 1st and 12th district boundaries in 2011.

"These cases are adjudicated on a case-by-case basis," says Ezra Rosebenberg, who heads the voting rights project of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, in Washington, D.C.  

Rosenberg says this week's Supreme Court ruling doesn't mean that it's always "bad" for legislators to draw district lines to create a 'majority-minority' district.  "It's bad when race is the predominate and uncompromising factor to the exclusion of all else and there's no good reason for that happening," he adds. 

WFAE's Mark Rumsey spoke with Rosenberg about the ruling and its potential impact. 

Mark Rumsey grew up in Kansas and got his first radio job at age 17 in the town of Abilene, where he announced easy-listening music played from vinyl record albums.