North Carolina’s political chessboard just got a fresh coat of partisan paint — and the federal courts have decided they won’t be cleaning the brushes.
A trio of judges signed off on the state’s newly redrawn congressional map, giving Republicans a clear runway heading into the 2026 midterms. The ruling slams shut an attempt by civil rights groups and minority voters to halt the map, which they said shrinks the influence of Black and Hispanic communities while punishing organizations that challenged previous plans.
The panel — all tapped by Republican presidents — wasn’t persuaded. They echoed the Supreme Court’s stance that federal courts have no business refereeing partisan gerrymanders, no matter how aggressively the lines are pulled or how oddly they twist across the state. In their view, the challengers hadn’t shown they were likely to win, and that was the end of that.
Critics were quick to sound the alarm. Common Cause North Carolina called the new layout “the most gerrymandered congressional map in state history,” a sweeping accusation in a state already famous for its boundary-bending cartography.
But this isn’t just a North Carolina story — it’s the latest skirmish in a broader, mid-decade redistricting offensive sweeping Republican-controlled states. With Texas and Missouri already in motion and more states eyeing similar rewrites, the map wars have gone national. Even California, under Democratic leadership, has launched its own targeted redraw aimed at flipping GOP-held seats.
Traditionally, redistricting waits patiently for the Census every ten years. This time, patience is out; political urgency is in. As both parties claw for numeric advantage in Congress, maps are becoming the battleground — and the courts, for now, are stepping aside.
