Judges allow North Carolina to use redrawn GOP-friendly map
A panel of federal judges in North Carolina said Wednesday they will allow the state to use its redrawn congressional map, which could allow for one more Republican seat in the House of Representatives.
The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina unanimously allowed the map in a 57-page ruling . Any appeals will go to the U.S. Supreme Court, which is already seeing a deluge of cases over several other states’ new maps, including the redrawn map for Texas.
The panel, composed of Republican-appointed judges, argued that the map’s opponents “have not made clear” if the redrawn map would “‘minimize or cancel out the voting potential’ of black North Carolinians.”
They added that with the speed in which the new map was crafted, the plaintiffs “have offered no reason to believe that the speed of the 2025 process indicates an intent to discriminate on the basis of race.”
Last week, a panel of judges had approved North Carolina’s 2023 congressional map , which was previously challenged after it was claimed to dilute Black voting power in violation of the Constitution and the Voting Rights Act. The National Democratic Redistricting Committee called it “one of the most gerrymandered maps in the country.”
The map would impact the state’s only swing seat occupied by Rep. Don Davis (D-N.C.), whose district has been continuously represented by Black members of Congress for more than 30 years, The Associated Press reported.
North Carolina’s state House and Senate passed the congressional map in October.
North Carolina is one of several red states pushing for new congressional maps at the request of President Trump in order for Republicans to keep the House in the 2026 midterm elections.
Texas was first to roll out a new congressional map, approved by Gov. Greg Abbott (R) before federal judges last week blocked its enactment , arguing it was a likely racial gerrymander. The Lone Star State took the case to the Supreme Court, which is already looking over the cases for existing maps in Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and North Dakota.
The judges’ ruling over Texas stemmed from a letter from Harmeet Dhillon, head of the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) civil rights division, to Abbott to change the racial composition of the state’s “coalition districts” to combine to form a majority-minority district.
“The Congressional Districts at issue are nothing more than vestiges of an unconstitutional racially based gerrymandering past, which must be abandoned, and must now be corrected by Texas,” Dhillon wrote.
The judges ruled that the map could have been put into place if the letter was focused on improving Republican performance in elections.
In response to Trump’s order to red states, California passed a state measure to redraw its congressional maps following the Nov. 4 election. This map could give the Golden State as many as five more Democratic seats in the House.
The DOJ joined the California Republican Party’s lawsuit against the new map , arguing that it is a racial gerrymander that favors Hispanic voters.
Updated Nov. 27 at 2:17 p.m. EST.
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