Federal Judges to Hear Arguments to Block New NC Voting Map

By Cash Michaels –

A hearing to consider arguments for a preliminary injunction against the new voting maps for North Carolina’s First and Third Congressional districts will be held November 19 in Winston-Salem by a federal three-judge panel.

Republican legislators voted in October to create an additional GOP-leaning congressional district that would add to the Republican majority in Congress and give President Trump an advantage to further his policy agenda. The new voting map, if enacted, would break up the historic Black Belt of majority African American counties in northeastern North Carolina.

Plaintiffs argue that enactment of the redistricting bill, S.B. 249, “violates the First, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments and Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act” by retaliating against voters for their political choices, would dilute Black voting strength there, and eliminates the only congressional district in eastern NC where Black voters can elect their candidate of choice.

Fighting Fire With Fire

Texas has created five strongly Republican districts to try to retain their House majority, but voters in California last week overwhelmingly passed Proposition 50, which automatically, though temporarily, created five additional Democratic-leaning districts to offset those created by Texas. Virginia is also expected to create a Democrat-leaning district to offset what North Carolina is doing.

Expedited Review Sought

Plaintiffs, which include the NC NAACP, Common Cause NC, and individual residents, have asked the court for an expedited review of their lawsuits against the newly drawn congressional districts.

Republican legislative leaders are expected to defend the redrawn districts and are asking the court to dismiss the lawsuits. In a court filing last week, Republican legislative leaders argued that they’re allowed to redraw congressional districts for partisan reasons.

Court Blessed Partisan Districts, Not Race-Based Ones

“Supreme Court precedent is clear ‘that partisan gerrymandering claims present political questions beyond the reach of the federal courts,” attorneys for the GOP argued.

But plaintiffs seeking to stop the new voting maps see it differently. “In a virtually unprecedented move, the [North Carolina General Assembly] engaged in mid-decade redistricting entirely on its own initiative,” argued attorneys for the plaintiffs.

“No new Census compelled it. No intervening court order prompted it. No legitimate state interest justified it. The NCGA targeted Congressional District 1 in the redistricting process for one reason alone: to punish the voters in North Carolina’s historic Black Belt, including Plaintiffs, who had challenged the previous districting plan in this Court and who exercised their political power to oppose the map-drawers’ preferred candidates and policies in 2024.”

Republican legislative leaders have until November 14, 2025 to respond to plaintiffs’ motion to review their two lawsuits to block the new voting maps. Plaintiffs then have until November 21 to respond to Republican leaders.

A trial date, expected for sometime in 2026, has yet to be set by the court.