North Carolina Republican lawmakers prevailed Wednesday on a preliminary injunction that would have blocked a 2026 congressional map redrawn to favor the GOP.
The redrawn map is GOP lawmakers’ response to President Donald Trump’s push to change voting maps across the country to help Republicans retain control of the U.S. House in 2026.
The North Carolina NAACP, Common Cause of North Carolina and a group of voters identified as the Williams plaintiffs had argued that a 2026 congressional map passed by the General Assembly last month reflects unconstitutional racial discrimination.
They alleged that changes to the 1st Congressional District dismantled a region known as the Black Belt, a region spanning many counties whose voters have elected a Black member of Congress for more than 50 years.
A three-judge panel — Fourth Circuit Judge Allison J. Rushing and the Middle District’s Chief Judge Richard Myers and Judge Thomas Schroeder, all appointed by Republican presidents — found that while the plaintiffs “have shown a disparate impact on black voters, they have not demonstrated that this effect likely reflects discriminatory intent.”
The judges determined that there was not enough evidence to provide a “clear showing” that the racial discrimination claim is likely to succeed. The new congressional map will therefore go into effect even as the lawsuit continues.
In a statement on social media, Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) took a victory lap, praising North Carolina Republicans who “went to work to protect the America First Agenda.”
“North Carolinians voted to send President Trump to the White House in 2016, 2020, and 2024, and this new map reflects that support,” Berger wrote. “President Trump deserves a Congress that will fight for American citizens and move his agenda forward. Today’s decision thwarts the radical left’s latest attempt to circumvent the will of the people.”
The plaintiffs and their attorneys said the ruling is highly damaging to democracy.
“We’re disappointed in the court’s decision today,” said Common Cause NC Executive Director Bob Phillips. “This ruling gives blessing to what will be the most gerrymandered congressional map in state history, a map that intentionally retaliates against voters in eastern North Carolina for supporting a candidate not preferred by the majority party.”
Hilary Harris Klein, lead counsel for the plaintiffs, said the courts must live up to their responsibility to “protect voters and the right to dissent.”
“These mid-decade redistricting battles are tearing our democracy apart,” she said in a statement. “If politicians want to keep their majority in any legislative body, our Constitution should require them to do it by earning votes, not by silencing the voices of communities they disagree with after every election.”
The victory for Republicans stands in contrast to a recent ruling in Texas, the largest battleground over mid-decade redistricting, where Trump appointee Judge Jeffrey Brown found that “substantial evidence shows that Texas racially gerrymandered the 2025 Map.” (That map, too, remains in effect after U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito paused the lower court ruling as litigation continues.)
North Carolina’s new map is expected to eliminate Congressman Don Davis (D-N.C.), one of three Black members of Congress from the state, resulting in an 11-3 Republican majority in the state’s delegation.
Wednesday’s ruling is likely to be appealed.
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