Advocacy groups on Thursday filed a lawsuit [complaint, PDF] challenging the redrawn boundaries for North Carolina’s congressional seats. Plaintiffs are arguing [AP report] that the district lines were influenced by politics. Some of the parties involved in the suit are the League of Women Voters [advocacy website] and Democratic voters. They claim [AP report], unlike previous plaintiffs in similar suits, that they have a method to measure excessive partisanship. The lawsuit is requesting that the current map be discarded and new lines be drawn for the districts. The lawsuit claims that the current map did not consider race. These allegations come after a federal lawsuit [press release] was filed last month of illegal partisan gerrymandering.

Voting rights remain a controversial legal issue in the US. In June a three-judge panel upheld [JURIST report] North Carolina’s voting districts. In April the US Supreme Court upheld [JURIST report] a redistricting decision in Arizona as not discriminatory. Earlier that same month a panel of federal judges rejected a motion by Representative Corrine Brown challenging the current congressional district boundaries in Florida [JURIST report]. Last year the court ruled [JURIST report] that the Elections Clause of the US Constitution permits the state of Arizona to adopt a commission to draw congressional districts. In April of last year the court threw out [JURIST report] a North Carolina court ruling that upheld Republican-drawn electoral districts for state and congressional lawmakers.