New York City's Districting Commission was chided last week for a racial gerrymander that denied a white incumbent a chance to run in her current minority area.

The question was how much discretion a lower Federal court has in responding to a Supreme Court decision overturning a district as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.

However, the Supreme Court also ruled 5-4 that District 23 was a racial gerrymander in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

His district woes were far from over, however, and the district was ultimately thrown out by the Supreme Court as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.

A16 The court met for the fourth time since 1993 to consider whether a skinny Congressional district in North Carolina is the product of an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.

A panel of Federal district judges ruled her district unconstitutional, saying it was a racial gerrymander drawn for the sole purpose of electing a black.

The odd shape of the 12th District in particular has been lampooned as a preposterous racial gerrymander.

That map was rejected by the Supreme Court in 1996 as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.

The lower court said the state used an unconstitutional "racial gerrymander" to produce a black-majority district of "bizarre and irregular shape."

It sent back for trial, scheduled for next month, a lawsuit by white voters who say their rights have been violated by a racial gerrymander.