Judges uphold NC districts used in 2024 election, but wait to rule on new map

RALEIGH

A panel of federal judges rejected a gerrymandering challenge to North Carolina electoral maps used in the 2024 election, but did not rule on claims against the new Trump-backed map passed by Republicans last month.

In a 181-page order released Thursday evening, three Republican-appointed judges ruled that advocacy groups which had challenged the maps failed to prove that lawmakers drew new districts “with the discriminatory purpose of minimizing or canceling out the voting potential of Black North Carolinians.”

Republican lawmakers redrew the state’s legislative and congressional maps in 2023 after the North Carolina Supreme Court issued a ruling that effectively legalized partisan gerrymandering, the practice of drawing an electoral map intended to benefit one political party.

Advocacy groups, including the North Carolina NAACP, sued over the maps, alleging that they illegally diluted the voting power of Black residents in violation of the federal Voting Rights Act.

Before judges could rule on those claims, lawmakers passed another new congressional map last month at the request of President Donald Trump, who has asked Republican-led states to create more favorable maps for the GOP ahead of the 2026 midterms.

That new map was challenged by the same advocacy groups, and judges held a hearing on the claims Wednesday.

Thursday’s ruling does not take a position on the new map, and is instead limited only to claims from the 2023 redistricting process.

However, a ruling on the remaining claims is expected to come quickly. Candidate filing for the 2026 election begins on Dec. 1 and maps will need to be finalized before then.