In February 2022, the NC Supreme Court (NCSC) — which had a Democratic majority at the time — struck down the NC Legislature's congressional and legislative maps for partisan gerrymandering, finding that the maps unfairly benefited Republicans and violated the state constitution.

In all the maps, districts were drawn in ways that could only be explained by partisan gerrymandering — like the cracking of Democratic areas and splitting Democratic-leaning counties into multiple congressional districts.

On Feb. 23, 2022, the trial court adopted new state House and Senate remedial maps passed by the General Assembly and an interim congressional map (for use only in the 2022 midterms) drawn by court-appointed special masters. Various parties appealed the new maps to NCSC.

On Feb. 25, 2022, NC GOP lawmakers asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block the interim congressional map by invoking the radical independent state legislature theory. SCOTUS denied emergency action, but agreed to hear the case on its merits, creating Moore v. Harper.

On Dec. 7, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument in Moore; a decision in the case remains pending. democracydocket.com/news-alerts/li…

On Dec. 16, 2022, NCSC ruled 4-3 to block the remedial state Senate map, uphold the remedial state House map and affirm the trial court’s rejection of the General Assembly’s remedial congressional map. democracydocket.com/news-alerts/no…

In Nov. 2022, partisan elections were held for 2 NCSC seats. The partisan makeup of the court flipped from a 4-3 Democratic majority to a 5-2 Republican majority. The new GOP-majority court began its term in Jan. 2023.

After the new Republican-majority court started, GOP lawmakers asked NCSC to rehear and "overrule" the Dec. 2022 ruling blocking the remedial state Senate map and the Feb. 2022 decision blocking the Legislature's original congressional & legislative maps. democracydocket.com/news-alerts/go…

On a party-line vote, the new Republican majority of the NCSC granted the request to rehear. In her dissent, Justice Anita Earls (D) wrote that "the majority has cloaked its power grab with a thin veil of mischaracterized legal authorities." democracydocket.com/news-alerts/no…

If this case history sounds complicated, it is. What should've been a simple case about whether the North Carolina Constitution protects voters from partisan gerrymandering turned into a behemoth lawsuit simply because lawmakers refused to draw fair maps.

GOP lawmakers want NCSC to say that lawsuits alleging partisan gerrymandering cannot be brought in North Carolina and that lawmakers can draw new legislative and congressional maps for 2024 free from judicial constraint.

Voting advocates argue that NCSC shouldn’t reverse its prior rulings because there is no valid reason to do so. They also argue that while lawmakers are permitted to redraw the congressional & state Senate maps, they cannot redraw the state House map for 2024.

Courts can rehear cases, but it's usually reserved for when there was an egregious mistake made or the wrong laws were applied. In North Carolina, there's been no change in the laws, state constitution or facts of the case since the decisions were made last year.