In August, a panel of three federal judges ruled that N. Carolina’s election districts are unconstitutionally drawn to favor Republican candidates, and this "constitutes an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, the First Amendment, and Article I of the Constitution."
This was the second time that NC elections maps have been found to be unconstitutional. In 2016, a federal court ruled that election districts drawn in 2011 were racially gerrymandered. The state legislature then drew a new map with the same districts largely intact, leading to the case decided in August.
In the August ruling, judge James A. Wynn Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit wrote: “We continue to lament that North Carolina voters now have been deprived of a constitutional congressional districting plan — and, therefore, constitutional representation in Congress — for six years and three election cycles,”…...“To the extent allowing the General Assembly another opportunity to draw a remedial plan would further delay electing representatives under a constitutional districting plan, that delay weighs heavily against giving the General Assembly another such opportunity.”
But the ruling came after NC held its 2018 primary elections using the old and illegal election districts. The panel of judges proposed several unusual remedies, including holding general elections without party primaries or even turning the November elections into a primary and holding the general election sometime before the new Congress convenes in January. Wynn and his fellow judges called for immediate briefing from the parties about which remedy to pursue.
Yesterday, after reviewing statements and reviews from interested parties, the court ruled that the same illegal election districts will be used in the 2018 elections. "Having carefully reviewed the parties' briefing and supporting materials, we conclude that there is insufficient time for this Court to approve a new districting plan and for the State to conduct an election using that plan prior to the seating of the new Congress in January 2019," the court ruling read.
So now, with the approval of a federal court, NC voters will be deprived of constitutional representation in congress for (at least) eight years and four election cycles.