Special master in the case of Covington v. North Carolina submitted [filing, PDF] a draft plan and order yesterday that includes an initial proposal for new district maps in certain state congressional districts. This plan was drafted by special master, Nathaniel Persily [Stanford professor profile], pursuant an order from a three-judge panel for the US District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina [official website], which recently announced [JURIST report] its plan to continue with its appointment of a special master despite North Carolina legislators’ objections. As outlined in the filing, the special master was appointed to develop “a plan that remedies specific legal violations in a limited number of districts.” The filing outlines the following:

[T]he court ordered the Special Master to redraw Enacted 2017 State Senate Districts 21 and 28 and State House Districts 21 and 57 in order to remedy those districts’ violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. It has also ordered redrawing of Enacted 2017 State House Districts 36, 37, 40, 41, and 105 because the General Assembly, in redrawing those districts in the 2017 Plan, may have violated the provision of the North Carolina State Constitution prohibiting redistricting more than once a decade.

Final redistricting plans must be completed and compliance with federal law must be met by Dec. 1.