High court ruling may give voter rights groups a strong tool

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The Supreme Court's ruling that two North Carolina congressional districts relied too heavily on race should give voting-rights advocates a potent tool to fight other electoral maps drawn to give Republicans an advantage in the state.

The justices agreed Monday with a federal court that had struck down two congressional districts as illegally race-based.

Because those districts were already redrawn for the 2016 election, the ruling doesn't require immediate changes from North Carolina.

A Democratic group led by former Attorney General Eric Holder is focusing on redistricting challenges to counter political gains Republicans have made since the 2010 census and the redrawing of electoral districts that followed.

On Monday, the justices ruled that Republicans who controlled the state legislature and governor's office in 2011 placed too many African-Americans in the two congressional districts.

The court action comes at a time of intense political division in the state, highlighted by legal battles over the GOP-controlled legislature's efforts to pass laws limiting some powers of North Carolina's new Democratic governor, Roy Cooper.