State legislators say they won’t turn over more information about the new voting districts they drew last year for the Greensboro City Council. The legislators are fighting subpoenas from a group of local residents suing to stop the redistricting because of racial gerrymandering. The new districts are scheduled to take effect for the 2017 election. On Monday, lawyers for the N.C. Attorney General’s Office said the information is protected from public view because of “legislative privilege.” In their filing in U.S. District Court in Greensboro, they said the legislators have given the residents’ attorneys all the information that’s not covered by legislative privilege. The Greensboro residents, who are being represented by the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, asked a judge last month to force the legislators to turn over the information.
The legislators, all Republicans, include members of the Guilford County delegation: state Reps. John Faircloth and Jon Hardister and state Sen. Trudy Wade.
The coalition also wants more documents from other legislator from Guilford County, state Rep. John Blust But Blust isn’t being represented by the same state attorneys who filed the motion Monday and are representing the other legislators.
The subpoenas demand documents legislators used to redraw City Council’s voting lines last year. Those documents could include drafts of the bill, the rationale for filing it, information on voting patterns, maps, emails or other documents.
Full Article: Legislators say redistricting emails, other info protected from public scrutiny – Greensboro News & Record: Local News.