November 24, 2025 Story by: Editor
A federal judicial panel has cleared significant portions of the congressional map drawn by the North Carolina General Assembly in 2023, rejecting key claims that the boundaries unlawfully diluted Black voting power.
Background
In 2023, the North Carolina legislature adopted a new map for U.S. House districts. Under that plan, Republicans increased their advantage—turning what had been a 7-7 split in the state’s congressional delegation into a 10-4 Republican majority in the 2024 election.
A coalition of plaintiffs — including the state branch of the NAACP North Carolina State Conference, the advocacy group Common Cause and individual voters — sued, arguing the map unlawfully “packed” and “cracked” Black voters in violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) and the U.S. Constitution.
The court’s finding
A three-judge panel — all appointed by Republican presidents — concluded that the plaintiffs failed to prove that the General Assembly drew the 2023 congressional map with a discriminatory intent to minimize or cancel out the voting potential of Black North Carolinians. The court wrote:
“After considering all the evidence, we find that Plaintiffs have failed to prove that the North Carolina General Assembly drew … districts with the discriminatory purpose of minimizing or canceling out the voting potential of Black North Carolinians.”
The ruling covers five U.S. House districts (including clusters in the Greensboro and Charlotte regions) and also three state Senate districts that were challenged in the same litigation.
Importantly, the court did not rule on the state’s most recent mid-cycle adjustments to the 1st Congressional District and the 3rd Congressional District — changes that critics say aim to create an 11-3 Republican majority heading into 2026.
What’s next
- The map upheld by the court remains in use for now.
- The legislative changes to the 1st and 3rd Congressional Districts, designed for the 2026 cycle, remain under legal challenge.
- The timing is critical: candidate filing begins in December for many districts, so pending litigation could still affect lines and strategies.
- Beyond North Carolina, this decision contributes to the broader landscape of redistricting oversight as states undertake or plan mid-decade map changes ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
Bottom line
The court’s ruling means that, for now, the 2023 map stands in North Carolina, reinforcing the current Republican advantage in the delegation. It also underscores the high bar required to prove intentional racial discrimination in redistricting—a barrier that challengers found insurmountable in this case. Yet the story is not yet over: new maps and legal challenges loom on the horizon for 2026.
Source: Axios / AP News / The Guardian
