NY Times: “A North Carolina court rejected a Republican-drawn map of the state’s 14 congressional districts on Wednesday and substituted its own version, the second time in less than two weeks that a court in the state has invalidated a Republican House map as unconstitutionally partisan.
The new map, drawn by a nonpartisan panel of four redistricting experts, appeared to split North Carolina’s congressional districts roughly equally between Republicans and Democrats, in a state where voters are divided evenly along partisan lines. It gives each party six relatively safe House seats and makes the remaining two winnable by either side.
The Republican-drawn map that was rejected would have awarded the G.O.P. six safe seats and Democrats four, leaving the remaining four as tossups.
Voting-rights advocacy groups and Democrats had argued to block the latest Republican map, saying it unlawfully favored Republicans. A three-judge panel of the state Superior Court in Raleigh agreed. It ruled Wednesday that the latest map failed to meet the standards for fairness set out by the State Supreme Court on Feb. 4, when that court invalidated the original map drawn by the Republican-controlled State Legislature.”
NC Policy Watch: “Republican legislators are appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court the state court decisions that led to their maps for new congressional districts being thrown out.
Republican lawmakers are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to put a freeze on use of the court-ordered congressional plan. The request for a stay says the state courts usurped the legislature’s authority.
Candidate filing started Thursday under new congressional districts drawn by a state trial court with the advice of special masters.”