North Carolina’s Supreme Court has rejected congressional and state legislative maps drawn up by the state’s Republican legislators as unconstitutional, another blow to GOP legislators as courtroom battles over voting rights violations and partisan and racial gerrymandering climb towards the nation’s highest court.
The 4-3 party-line decision from the state’s highest court on 4 February orders the GOP-controlled state legislature to redraw political maps by 18 February to be approved by a lower court no later than 23 February – which is also the deadline for the state’s Republican leaders to demand an emergency stay as they appeal to the US Supreme Court.
