A panel of federal judges heard a case on Wednesday challenging North Carolina’s new congressional maps that add another Republican-favored seat, just days after Texas said they’re taking an appeal to the Supreme Court over their own maps.
The plaintiffs in the case, including the North Carolina NAACP, have argued that racial gerrymandering occurred in the creation of the map by the Republican-led legislature, and a decision from the court is expected by December 1, according to WXII 12.
“North Carolina Democrats continue to fight for fair representation — and now this fight turns to the courts. Echoing what we saw in Texas, North Carolina Republicans passed a rigged congressional map that further weakens the voting power of Black and Brown communities across the state,” Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin said in a statement Thursday.
However, Republicans in North Carolina have argued that this was to counteract longtime gerrymandering efforts in blue states.
“Across the country, Democrat-run states have spent decades ensuring that Republicans would be drawn out of Congress,” North Carolina Senate Leader Phil Berger said on October 21.
“North Carolina Republicans will not sit quietly and watch Democrats continue to ignore the will of the people in an attempt to force their liberal agenda on our citizens. This new map respects the will of the North Carolina voters who sent President Trump to the White House three times,” Berger added.
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Multiple court cases have been in the spotlight when it comes to mid-decade redistricting nationwide, including in California and Texas. Texas’ map, signed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, was blocked by a federal court earlier this week, which said that the state must use their 2021 maps instead. Abbott said the case will be appealed to the Supreme Court next, calling the ruling “clearly erroneous.”
“The public perception of this case is that it’s about politics,” the ruling from the federal panel in Texas stated. “To be sure, politics played a role in drawing the 2025 map. Substantial evidence shows that Texas racially gerrymandered the 2025 map.”
Attorney General Ken Paxton said he “fully expect[s] the [Supreme] Court to uphold Texas’s sovereign right to engage in partisan redistricting.”
In California, the Justice Department and the California Republican Party are suing over the maps that are set to go into effect with the passage of Proposition 50 earlier this month, which created five Democrat-favored seats to counteract Texas’ five Republican-favored seats drawn in their redistricting process.
“The race-based gerrymandered maps passed by the California legislature are unlawful and unconstitutional. We are moving swiftly to prevent these illegal maps from tainting our upcoming elections,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli posted to X regarding the Golden State case. “California is free to draw congressional maps, but they may not be drawn based on race.”
The complicated mid-decade redistricting fight is not contained to those states, as President Donald Trump wants Indiana to redraw its maps for two more Republican-favored seats, and Florida is expected to redraw their maps to allow more Republicans as well — and other blue and red states could also be making changes. It’s unclear who will ultimately come out on top.
Redistricting could further accelerate depending on how the Supreme Court rules in Louisiana v. Callais, which could scrap or make changes to how Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act is followed and enable more Republican seats to be drawn, especially in the southern United States.
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