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A federal district court judge heard arguments in a lawsuit challenging a Republican-drawn map for North Carolina's state senate districts.

North Carolina voting-rights advocates have sued to overturn redistricting plans drawn by Republicans for the 2024 elections, saying legislative leaders unlawfully weakened the electoral influence of Black voters.

The court had affirmed Republican legislators can’t draw electoral districts that are excessively partisan in an otherwise closely divided state. What’s changed since December? Republicans now hold a majority on the court.

Another lawsuit challenging North Carolina’s latest round of redistricting has been filed. A conservation group, university mathematicians and voters involved in the suit accuse Republican mapmakers of illegal partisan and racial gerrymandering in both the state’s congressional and General Assembly districts.

During two days of public comment, the clearest and loudest message to emerge about North Carolina's latest round of redistricting was that the Legislature's Republican majority seems to be picking up where it left off last decade.

Legislators will soon start redrawing boundaries for North Carolina's state legislative and congressional districts with 2020 census data. The hearings are part of the General Assembly's effort to make the process of redrawing the state's legislative and congressional districts more transparent.

State lawmakers will closely follow 2019 criteria for the drawing of new district maps based on 2020 census data.

State lawmakers soon will start the redistricting process and if history is any guide, the effort to attain partisan advantage through political maps will end up in court.

North Carolina's Republican-led legislature soon will start the decennial redistricting process. One question is, will they look back on a decade's worth of litigation to carve a path towards fairer political maps or to gain as much political advantage as possible before courts take up the inevitable lawsuits?