North Carolina can use GOP-drawn congressional map designed to add another Republican House seat, court rules
A federal court in North Carolina is allowing the state to use a new Republican-drawn congressional map that would help the Republican Party win another House seat in next year’s midterm elections.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina unanimously denied requests for a preliminary injunction in two lawsuits that said in part that the new map was intended to dilute the electoral strength of black voters, in violation of the 14th Amendment.
The judges found that the protesters “presented no direct evidence” that the legislature adopted the map for the purposes of racial discrimination.
“Instead, the direct evidence shows that the 2025 redistricting was motivated by partisan goals,” the committee wrote Wednesday in a 57-page opinion.
In 2019, the Supreme Court authorized political gerrymandering, finding that “partisan allegations of gerrymandering raise political questions beyond the reach of the federal courts.”
The Republican-controlled North Carolina Legislature last month approved a map aimed at increasing the number of Republican seats in the House. Gov. Josh Stein, a Democrat, does not have the authority to veto the map.
The opponents, in two consolidated lawsuits, asked the court to block the state from using the new boundaries of two congressional districts for next year’s midterm elections.
The map aims to flip North Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, which President Donald Trump narrowly won in 2024. It is represented by Democrat Don Davis, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus.
A spokesperson for Davis did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday evening.
Republicans hold 10 of the state’s 14 congressional districts.
Trump has led the charge for Republican-led legislatures to redraw congressional maps ahead of the midterms, when the Republican Party will defend a slim majority in the House. The move prompted some Democratic-led states, like California, to draw up their own maps.
Texas sparked a national redistricting battle after approving a new Republican-drawn map in August. The Supreme Court recently got involved and is currently considering a challenge to the Texas map.
Missouri Republicans also approved a revised map this year to strengthen their party, and the Justice Department joined a Republican-led lawsuit challenging a Democratic-drawn map in California that voters approved this month.
After the court’s ruling Wednesday, North Carolina Senate Republican Leader Phil Berger said the map was designed to bolster Trump’s agenda.
“While Democratic-led states like California are doing everything in their power to undermine President Trump’s administration and agenda, North Carolina Republicans have gotten to work protecting the America First agenda,” he said in a statement. “North Carolinians voted to send President Trump to the White House in 2016, 2020 and 2024, and this new map reflects that support. President Trump deserves a Congress that will fight for American citizens and advance his agenda.”
The three-judge panel also rejected the claim that the Legislature improperly relied on 2020 census data, which opponents of the map said was no longer an accurate representation of the state’s population.
The plaintiffs “have presented no evidence showing the current population of the congressional districts covered by the 2025 plan, much less any evidence that the demographic disparities are constitutionally serious,” the judges wrote.
Bob Phillips, executive director of Common Cause North Carolina, one of the nonprofit groups that challenged the new map, criticized the panel’s decision and defended the challengers’ contention that the map violated the First Amendment’s protections against retaliation and political expression.
The decision “gives its blessing to what will be the most redrafted congressional map in state history, one that intentionally seeks to retaliate against eastern North Carolina voters for supporting a candidate not favored by the majority party,” Phillips said in a statement.
