Application for Extension of Time to File Brief on the Merits and Joint Appendix

    JUL 25 2008 3:27 AM FR T0:. 121221320852) 

  
  

No. 

In the 

Supreme Court of the United States 

  

JAMES B. HUNT, JR, et al., 
Appellants, 

v. 

MARTIN CROMARTIE, ef al., 

Appellees. 

  

APPLICATION FOR EXTENSION OF TIME TO FILE 

BRIEF ON THE MERITS AND JOINT APPENDIX 

  

To the Honorable William H. Rehnquist, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the 

United States: 

Appellants James B. Hunt, Jr., er al., pray for a ten (10) day extension of time to file their 

brief on the merits and the joint appendix in this Court to and including August 21, 2000. In 

support of this application, appellants show the following: 

1. Probable jurisdiction was noted by this Court on June 26, 2000. The appellants’ brief 

on the merits and the joint appendix are now due by August 10,2000. This application is being 

filed more than ten (10) days before that date. 

2. This case involves an equal protection challenge to the North Carolina remedial 

congressional redistricting plan enacted by the General Assembly in 1997, after remand by the 

Court in Shaw v. Hunt, 517 U.S. 899 (1996). This action was the subject of a previous appeal to 

 



   
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2 

this Court by the appellants, which resulted in an order reversing the three-judge court's 

summary judgment invalidating Congressional District 12 in the 1997 Plan. Hunt v. Cromartie, 

526 U.S. 541 (1999). The final judgment which is the subject of this appeal was entered on 

March 8, 2000, declaring District 12 an unconstitutional racial gerrymander and enjoining 

elortiors under the 1997 Plan. A stay of the district court’s order was entered by this Court on 

March 16, 2000. 

3. Application of the legal principles established by this Court in Shaw and its progeny 1s 

a difficult exercise and requires an exacting and fact-intensive inquiry. The record in this case, 

despite only three days of trial testimony, is extensive, including seventeen depositions, over two 

hundred (200) exhibits and the State’s 1997 Congressional Plan Section 5 Submission 

(comprising five volumes). Although the parties have agreed in general to the contents of the 

appendix, appellees are in need of additional time to complete their designations. Appellants 

also need additional time to combine the parties’ designations and reformat the necessary 

portions of the trial record to meet the requirements of Rule 33.1. Appellants do not wish to 

defer preparation of the joint appendix. 

4. In part because of the time and effort being expended to prepare the joint appendix, 

appellants need additional time to devote to the brief on the merits. In addition, the equal 

protection issues involved in the redistricting context are no simple matter, as evidenced by the 

history of this litigation, which brings North Carolina’s congressional redistricting before this 

Court for a fourth time this decade. The issues raised in this appeal are important not only to 

North Carolina, but to all the other states which soon will be commencing the next round of 

redistricting based on the 2000 Federal Census. For these reasons, appellants need the requested 

 



   
Jul 25 2E@8 39:27 AM FR 

3 

extension in order to adequately present to this Court the law and facts necessary for the 

resolution of the issues in this case. 

5. Additional counsel experienced in Supreme Court appellate practice may be 

associated with this appeal and additional time to confer on the brief is needed. Also, appellants’ 

counsel must confer with counsel for the Smallwood appellant-intervenors, whose appeal from 

the same court order is pending before this Court. 

6. Appellants’ counsel have conferred with appellees’ counsel and are authorized to 

represent to this Court that the apace consent to a ten (10) day extension of time to file the 

brief on the merits and the joint appendix. 

WHEREFORE, appellants respectfully request that an order be entered extending the 

time to file the brief on the merits and the joint appendix to and including August 21, 2000. 

Respectfully submitted, 

This the 18th day of July, 2000. 

MICHAEL F. EASLEY 
ATTORNEY GENERAL 

SH, 
Tiare B. Smiley 4 

Special Deputy Attorney General 

N. C. State Bar No. 7119 

  

N. C. Department of Justice 
P. O. Box 629 
Raleigh, N. C. 27602 

xk TOTAL PARGE.B4 *xx