North Carolina Supreme Court temporarily blocks GOP gerrymander — and could throw it out entirely

On Wednesday, the North Carolina Supreme Judicial Court issued an injunction temporarily blocking the use of Republicans' new heavily gerrymandered congressional map and delaying the primaries — and scheduled a hearing on whether or not to strike it down altogether.

Democrats control four out of seven seats on the state Supreme Court, giving them good odds of succeeding.

In 2019, the Wake County Superior Court threw out another aggressive map that consistently elected 10 Republicans and 3 Democrats for the entirety of the previous decade, despite the state being almost equally split in statewide races. Republicans did not appeal that decision because they were unlikely to prevail at the Supreme Court.

READ MORE: 'We'll lose that seat': Conservative radio host begs Trump not to endorse accused sex blackmailer for Senate

Republicans' new map, which was not subject to a veto by the Democratic governor under the state redistricting process, is almost as aggressive as that earlier gerrymander, creating 9 Republican-leaning districts and 4 Democratic-leaning ones — and adding a significant number of white voters to a heavily Black district, making it harder for Black voters to elect their candidate of choice.

This comes amid a flurry of other litigation against Republican-drawn congressional maps. In Ohio, the state Supreme Court is reviewing another aggressive gerrymander that could draw out all but two Democrats, and the Biden administration has filed a federal lawsuit against Texas for a congressional map that creates no new Black or Hispanic opportunity districts.