# Cooper v. Harris Supreme Court decision of **May 22, 2017** holding that North Carolina's First and Twelfth Congressional Districts, drawn in 2011, were unconstitutional racial gerrymanders. Justice [[Elena Kagan]] wrote for the Court. The vote was 8–0 on District 1 (Justice Gorsuch did not take part) and 5–3 on District 12. The 2011 map was drawn by the Republican redistricting strategist [[Thomas Hofeller]] after Republicans won the North Carolina General Assembly in the 2010 wave organized by the [[RedMap Project]]. The state argued that District 12 was drawn on politics, not race. The Court found that the record showed race predominated. A federal court had already struck the map in February 2016, which forced a 2016 redraw. Republicans drew the replacement openly for partisan advantage, and that map became the subject of [[Rucho v. Common Cause]]. See [[North Carolina v. Covington]] for the companion ruling on the 2011 legislative maps, and [[Gerrymandering]].