NORTH CAROLINA, USA — After months of debating between North Carolina Republican lawmakers and voting rights groups, the North Carolina Supreme Court struck down the newly drawn legislative and congressional redistricting maps.
In an order submitted Friday evening, the court called for state lawmakers to submit new maps that will "adhere to traditional neutral districting criteria and not subordinate them to partisan criteria."
Quick highlights from the order:
- The court did not move back the 2022 primary election, even as it asked for new maps to be drawn by the state legislature
- The court opted not to appoint a 'special master' to advise the legislature in a nonpartisan way when redrawing the districts
- The court required a new set of congressional and legislative maps to be submitted to the trial court by Feb. 18
- The court ordered the trial court to issue an approval of the new maps by Feb. 23.
Attorney General Josh Stein, a Democrat, praised the news Friday evening.
In addition to providing an outline to lawmakers in their efforts to redraw the districts, the justices wrote in the order that "the General Assembly shall submit to the trial court in writing, along with their proposed remedial maps, an explanation of what data they relied on to determine that their districting plan is constitutional..."
Republican lawmakers, who passed the new maps in 2021, could choose to appeal the court's decision up to the U.S. Supreme Court, since federal issues were raised.
Chief Justice Paul Newby dissented from the decision, saying the court's decision, "violates separation of powers by effectively placing responsibility for redistricting with the judicial branch, not the legislative branch as expressly provided in our constitution."