The United States House of Representative elections of 2000 in North Carolina were held on 3 November 2000 as part of the biennial election to the United States House of Representatives. All twelve seats in North Carolina, and 435 nationwide, were elected.
As in 1998, no districts changed hands, with the Republicans winning seven and the Democrats winning five of the twelve seats. All incumbents ran for office again, with all winning, meaning that no new representatives were elected.
North Carolina drew a new map following Shaw v. Hunt, and the new maps were challenged in turn. A three-judge panel of the Eastern District of North Carolina granted summary judgment that the new boundaries were an illegal racial gerrymander.[1] This was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which in Hunt v. Cromartie on May 17, 1999, unanimously ruled that the Eastern District of North Carolina was in error to grant summary judgment and remanded the case for the court to hold a trial.
After the ensuing trial, the Eastern District of North Carolina ruled that the 12th district was an illegal racial gerrymander on March 7, 2000.[2] This was again appealed, now as Easley v. Cromartie. The U.S. Supreme Court on April 18, 2001, reversed the Eastern District of North Carolina and ruled that the 12th district boundaries were not racially based but was a partisan gerrymander. They said this was a political question that the courts should not rule upon. Justice O'Connor, the author of Shaw v. Hunt, was the swing justice who switched sides to uphold the district boundaries.
