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T H E I N D E P E N D E N T D A I LY AT D U K E U N I V E R S I T Y

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2019 DUKECHRONICLE.COM

ONE HUNDRED AND FOURTEENTH YEAR, ISSUE 48

$112.5 million

Uni. settles research misconduct case with payment to feds By Ben Leonard Managing Editor

Duke will pay $112.5 million to the federal government in a settlement for a lawsuit regarding its handling of falsified data that the suit alleged was linked to $200 million in federal research grants. “This is a difficult moment for Duke,” President Vincent Price wrote in an email to the Duke community. “This case demonstrates the devastating impact of research fraud and

reinforces the need for all of us to have a focused commitment on promoting research integrity and accountability.” The lawsuit, filed by former lab analyst Joseph Thomas, alleged Duke used the data to obtain grants and covered up the fraud. The lawsuit came from fraud allegedly committed by former Duke researcher Erin Potts-Kant. A researcher in the pulmonary, allergy and critical care department of Duke Health, Potts-Kant has had more than 12 scientific papers retracted since word broke of the allegedly falsified data.

Potts-Kant admitted to changing parts of the data but said that experiments actually were run. Thomas brought the case under the False Claims Act, which could have forced Duke to fork over as much as $600 million. Thomas alleged Potts-Kant falsified data in research on mice’s lungs. From these data, labs at the University were able to secure additional federal funding, calling roughly $200 million in grants into question. See PAYMENT on Page 3

Supreme Court hears case on NC gerrymandering By Isabelle Doan News Editor

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Three years ago, the Supreme Court upheld a ruling that forced North Carolina to redraw congressional districts to eliminate racial gerrymandering. Now, gerrymandering in North Carolina has made its way back to the Supreme Court. Tuesday morning, the Court heard an oral argument for Rucho v. Common Cause, an appeal of a district court decision last year that struck down North Carolina’s 2016 congressional map for being an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander. Paul Clement, lawyer for the North Carolina Republicans, argued that plaintiffs originally had neither legal standing nor justiciable injury. “What they’re complaining of is that they’re grouped in a district with either too many people who agree with them or too few people who agree with them, and, therefore, their vote is sort of diluted in some way,” Clement said. Republican congressional candidates won only 53 percent of the statewide vote in 2016, but won 10 of 13 seats. This happened again in 2018. Clement added that many voters live in districts where they will not have their preferred candidate elected. Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor disagreed that proportional representation was the issue at hand. “All of the tests that they’re proposing and that the district court looked at didn’t talk about proportionate representation,” Sotomayor said. “It looked at only the opportunity to elect. An opportunity is different.” She said that the way the map in question is structured limited opportunity for a party’s supporters to elect their preferred representative. The argument turned to research conducted by one of Duke’s own—Jonathan Mattingly, chair of the department of mathematics. Mattingly and his colleagues developed a method to show whether a congressional map favors one party too much. The appellee’s brief stated that Mattingly “generated over 24,000 alternative [congressional district] maps using traditional nonpartisan criteria. Fewer than 0.7 percent of them resulted in a Republican advantage as lopsided as 10-3.” Clement pointed out that the small percentage is still a substantial number of maps.

Bre Bradham | Contributing Photographer Activists opposing partisan gerrymandering gathered outside the Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C. Tuesday morning as Rucho v. Common Cause was argued inside.

“If you run 24,000 maps with partisanship taken out entirely to the legislature. and you just use traditional principles, you get 162 different “Well, that’s making lemonade out of lemons,” Associate maps that produce a 10/3 Republican split,” Clement said. “So, Justice Elena Kagan said. “You can do it 24,000 different ways yeah, it’s 1 percent, it’s .7 percent—I mean .7 percent, just to be and 23,999 produce an outcome that’s less partisan than the clear. That’s 162 different ways to get to one the legislature picked here.” a 10/3 map that didn’t take politics into This too, was one point of the You’re discriminating on the account at all.” argument of Emmet Bondurant, Associate Justice Samuel Alito pointed basis of a group’s speech and lawyer for appellees Common out that there were no criteria for choosing Cause et al. He noted that in diluting their vote accordingly. among 24,000 maps. Sotomayor added Mattingly’s charts, “six of the that 99 percent of the time, the method districts are extreme statistical sonia sotomayor outliers that would not be achieved produces maps fairer to both parties than ASSOCIATE JUSTICE OF THE US SUPREME COURT the chosen map. in even one, in some instances, “You can have 162, 164, but what of 24,000 plans.” This, he said, you can’t do in picking that 1 percent of a map is discriminate demonstrates an “extreme partisan effect.” against a group of people based on their political views,” she “Isn’t proportional representation a judicially said. “You’re discriminating on the basis of a group’s speech manageable standard?” Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh and diluting their vote accordingly.” asked Clement. Clement had pointed out that because there are 24,000 See SUPREME COURT on Page 3 possible maps, the process should be discretionary, and left

Duke research cited in court discussion

Baseball’s Cooper Stinson rolls Davidson

EDITORIAL: DSG, shut your laptops

Two Duke students road-tripped to D.C. and got to hear their research discussed by the Supreme Court. PAGE 2

The freshman pitcher held the Wildcats scoreless through seven innings Tuesday. PAGE 11

Editorial Board parses DSG’s history of respectability issues in the context of the laptop fiasco. PAGE 14

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