Thornburg v. Gingles was a lawsuit that reached the United States Supreme Court in 1985. A unanimous court found that "the legacy of official discrimination ... acted in concert with the multimember districting scheme to impair the ability of ... cohesive groups of black voters to participate equally in the political process and to elect candidates of their choice." The ruling led to more single-member districts in state legislatures.

The Thornburg of the case was the North Carolina Attorney General

North Carolina attorney general

The Attorney General of North Carolina is the head of the state's Department of Justice and provides legal representation and advice to all state agencies. He or she does not have the authority to prosecute specific crimes unless requested to do so by a local district attorney...

, Lacy Thornburg

Lacy Thornburg

Lacy Herman Thornburg an American lawyer and judge, was North Carolina attorney general from 1985 to 1993.After serving in the United States Army, Thornburg attended Mars Hill College when it was a junior college. He then earned a law degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill...

. The case began under his predecessor, Rufus Edmisten. Attorneys for the plaintiff, Ralph Gingles, included Julius Chambers

Julius Chambers

Julius Chambers, F.R.G.S.,There is disparity about an unused first name. The Americana Vol.4 calls him Charles Julius Chambers, Dictionary of American Biography and The Delta Kappa Epsilon Quarterly call him James Julius Chambers. Regardless of the correct name, he used neither one in...

, Lani Guinier

Lani Guinier

Lani Guinier is an American lawyer, scholar and civil rights activist. The first African-American woman tenured professor at Harvard Law School, Guinier's work includes professional responsibilities of public lawyers, the relationship between democracy and the law, the role of race and gender in...

, and Leslie Winner

Leslie Winner

Leslie J. Winner is a North Carolina attorney and the executive director of the Winston-Salem-based Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation. At the time of her selection to succeed Thomas W. Ross at the foundation, Winner was general counsel and vice president for the University of North Carolina system.A...

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