RALEIGH, N.C. (CN) - North Carolina's new congressional map, expected to gain Republicans an additional seat in the U.S. House, will be used during the midterms, barring further court intervention. 

A panel of judges smacked down requests to pause the implementation of North Carolina's 2025 congressional map on Wednesday. The plaintiffs, two groups of plaintiffs who had filed suit over the 2023 congressional map before their cases were consolidated, had challenged the October map, both asking the court to issue an injunction preventing it from being used in 2026.

In their 57-page opinion, Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Allison Rushing, a Donald Trump appointee, and U.S. District Court Judges Thomas Schroeder and Richard Myers - George W. Bush and Trump appointees - denied the plaintiffs' requests for intervention.

"Plaintiffs have not made a clear showing that they are likely to succeed on the merits of any of the claims advanced in their preliminary injunction motions," they said. 

The plaintiffs claimed in court last week that the state's legislature initiated redistricting to harm voters and that it was an act of retaliation for lawsuits filed over the 2023 map. Lawmakers are attempting to create a cycle of redistricting where new maps are drawn before a final judgment is entered on any one map, voters claimed. The parties had been waiting on a final judgment in the case when Republican lawmakers began the process in October, and the panel finally ruled over the 2023 map last week.

North Carolina's redistricting process only changed two congressional districts in the northeastern Black Belt region of the state, moving additional Republican voters from Congressional District 3 into Congressional District 1, a seat currently held by Democratic U.S. Representative Don Davis.

The plaintiffs had raised First Amendment, 14th Amendment and 15th Amendment claims, saying the redistricting process frustrates their legal case by changing the district lines and dilutes the voting power of Black voters. 

"Plaintiffs have not shown that their First Amendment claims and 14th Amendment partisanship claim are likely to be justiciable, much less successful," the panel said in its order, emphasizing that the plaintiffs were trying to toe around prior rulings that excessive partisanship in redistricting is not an issue for the courts. 

The panel also questioned the voters' argument that the legislature can't choose to redistrict solely for political advantage. 

"There is no question that a state 'may engage in constitutional political gerrymandering' when drawing a congressional map," the panel said. "And plaintiffs identify no authority limiting a state's power to redistrict mid-decade." 

The voters also failed to prove that the legislature acted with discriminatory intent to dilute the voting strength of Black North Carolinians living in the impacted congressional districts, the panel said. 

Speaker of the House Destin Hall and Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger, both defendants, had contended that no racial data was used in the drafting process, even if the redistricting process had been politically motivated. Map author state Senator Ralph Hise also testified before the panel during the hearing last week, emphasizing that increasing Republican support in Congress was the driving reason behind the new election map.

"As of now, the direct evidence shows that partisanship, not race, motivated the reconfiguration of CD 1 and 3," the panel said, adding that even if the new districts have a disparate impact on Black voters, that doesn't mean lawmakers acted with discriminatory intent.  

Republican leadership in the state's General Assembly has said the process was in response to redistricting in California that sought to increase Democratic seats, and President Trump's calls for new maps so the GOP can maintain its majority in the U.S. House. 

"North Carolinians voted to send President Trump to the White House in 2016, 2020, and 2024, and this new map reflects that support," Berger said in a statement. "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." 

"These mid-decade redistricting battles are tearing our democracy apart; we need the courts more than ever to enforce the protections of the Constitution to protect voters and the right to dissent," said Hilary Harris Klein, attorney for the North Carolina division of the NAACP plaintiffs.

"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 panel has yet to weigh a request from the legislative defendants to dismiss the voters' new complaints.

Source: Courthouse News Service