A state judge just threw out two constitutional amendments because the GOP legislature was 'illegally constituted'

On Friday, Wake County Superior Court Judge Bryan Collins struck down two of the state constitutional amendments passed by North Carolina voters last November. But the reason he gave for his decision was remarkable: in his view, the state legislature is so gerrymandered as to be an illegitimate body that doesn't really represent voters, and thus had no authority to alter the state constitution.

"An illegally constituted General Assembly does not represent the people of North Carolina and is therefore not empowered to pass legislation that would amend the state’s constitution," wrote Collins.

The amendments that were struck down by this ruling were an amendment requirement that voters present a strict photo ID at the polls, which is almost identical to a previous law a federal court said targeted African Americans "with almost surgical precision," and an amendment capping the state income tax rate at 7 percent, which was a huge gift to the wealthy that jeopardized the state budget.

Collins left in place the amendment that expanded the constitutional rights of crime victims, and the amendment that created a constitutional right to hunt and fish. Two more amendments — one that would have transferred control of the Board of Elections to the legislature, and one that would have given the legislature power over judicial nominations — were rejected by voters.

While it was ultimately the voters that chose whether or not to enact the constitutional amendments the legislature passed, the legislature got to decide what issues qualified for the ballot in the first place and — more important — got to write the language describing the measures on the ballots, potentially biasing or misleading voters. A court already blocked some early language for some of the measures last year.

North Carolina is one of the most aggressively gerrymandered states in America, with Republican-drawn congressional and legislative maps that cram Democratic voters into a minimum number of oblong districts and spread Republican voters out among several. The legislative districts are facing a challenge of their own, in a lawsuit by Common Cause and the North Carolina Democratic Party.

Meanwhile, the congressional map is also facing a challenge. Last August, a federal judge ruled the map unconstitutional but kept it in place, citing insufficient time before the election to resolve the issue. The Supreme Court will weigh in on the matter later this year.