DURHAM, N.C. - Robinson Everett, a Duke University law professor who spent nearly 10 years challenging the way North Carolina's congressional districts were drawn, died Friday. He was 81.

Everett died in his sleep, the university's law school said on its Web site.

Friend Judith Wegner told The News & Observer of Raleigh that Everett was a prodigy who got a law degree from Harvard at 22.

Everett was also a former chief judge of the United States Court of Military Appeals, but is best known for his fight over North Carolina's 12th District.

The district was one of two drawn have a majority of black voters. Everett and four other white voters sued in 1992 and the professor appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court four times before losing the case in 2001.