North Carolina congressional districts unconstitutionally gerrymandered to aid Republicans, court rules

A panel of three federal judges held Monday that North Carolina’s congressional districts were unconstitutionally gerrymandered to help Republicans over Democrats and said it may require new districts before the November election, possibly affecting control of the House.

The judges acknowledged that primary elections have already produced candidates for the 2018 elections, but said they were reluctant to let elections take place in congressional districts that courts have twice found violate constitutional standards.

North Carolina legislators are likely to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to step in. The court currently has eight members since Justice Anthony M. Kennedy’s retirement this summer. Senate hearings on President Trump’s nominee, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, commence Tuesday.

The North Carolina case is a long-running saga, with federal courts first striking down the Legislature’s work as a racial gerrymander and then as a partisan gerrymander.

The Supreme Court told the three-judge panel to take another look at the case in light of the court’s decision in a Wisconsin partisan gerrymandering case, in which the justices said those who brought that case did not have legal standing.