RALEIGH — A legal challenge has been filed against North Carolina’s new congressional maps contained in Senate Bill 249, which was passed by the legislature Oct. 22.
The new maps create the opportunity for the Republican Party to gain another seat in Congress and hold 11 of the state’s 14 districts. Districts 1 and 3 — currently held by Rep. Don Davis (D-Snow Hill) and Greg Murphy (R-Greenville), respectively — were altered.
The lawsuit, Williams v. Blackwell, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina on Oct. 23. It was brought by eight North Carolina residents in the two redrawn districts along with a dozen other individuals residing in counties outside the two affected districts.
The plaintiffs are represented by the Elias Law Group, which has offices in Washington, D.C., and Seattle, as well as attorneys with Patterson Harkavy LLP, which has offices in Chapel Hill and Greensboro.
The Elias Law Group’s founder is Marc Elias, a former lawyer for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign. Elias has filed multiple past election lawsuits in North Carolina, including one loosening absentee ballot rules and a 2020 consent order that lawmakers labeled as a “collusive settlement agreement.” Republicans later filed legislation blocking future such settlements, which ended in a veto by former Gov. Roy Cooper.
Defendants named in the lawsuit include House Elections Committee Co-chairs Reps. Hugh Blackwell (R-Burke) and Sarah Stevens (R-Surry), Senate Elections Committee Co-chairs Sens. Ralph Hise (R-Mitchell) and Brad Overcash (R-Gaston), as well as House Speaker Destin Hall (R-Granite Falls), Senate Leader Phil Berger (R-Eden) and the members of the State Board of Elections.
The lawsuit seeks declaratory and injunctive relief, alleging the maps “intentionally” discriminate against minority voters and “necessarily” dilute the black vote and thereby violate the 14th and 15th amendments of the U.S. Constitution and Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
“Senate Bill 249 (the “2025 Plan”) repeats the constitutional violations of the 2023 Plan — unconstitutionally diluting Black voting strength in the Piedmont Triad and Mecklenburg — and then doubles down on them by further dismantling the First Congressional District (“CD-1”), a historic Black opportunity district in the northeastern portion of the state,” the lawsuit claims.
Lawmakers have maintained the maps were politically drawn and no racial data was used. During the Senate’s Oct. 20 Elections Committee hearing, Hise — who said he drew the maps — stressed that point and stated that none of the three preconditions set out in Thornburg v. Gingles (1986) with regard to Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act were present. When questioned by Democrats, Hise also denied any socioeconomic data was used.
Rep. Brenden Jones (R-Columbus) laid out the process in comments given on the House floor before the maps were passed, noting that no racial data was used and that the House had worked with a consultant, Blake Springetti of Ohio.
A second legal challenge wasn’t far behind.
On Oct. 27, the NC NAACP and Common Cause filed a motion in North Carolina’s Middle District Court to add Senate Bill 249 to its existing 2023 federal redistricting lawsuit. The claim in the filing is the same as the Williams v. Blackwell complaint of “diluting Black voting power,” particularly in District 1.
This new motion by the NC NAACP and Common Cause follows proceedings held this summer in NC NAACP v. Berger before a three-judge panel that had consolidated the challenges to the 2023 maps used in prior elections. That panel has not yet issued a ruling in that case but granted the motion to add the case in an order issued Oct. 30. The 18 individuals listed as plaintiffs in the 2023 case are also among the plaintiffs in Williams v. Blackwell.
In late May, the State Board of Elections filed a brief urging the court’s resolution of the 2023 case by Dec. 1, 2025, to avoid disrupting the March 2026 primaries.
Additionally, a third challenge is expected from Bishop William Barber, his activist group Repairers of the Breach and the nonprofit legal firm Forward Justice.
Barber and the groups held an Oct. 23 press conference outside the General Assembly building in Raleigh announcing their intention to file a lawsuit and a final was decision announced during a Nov. 2 “mass moral meeting” livestream.
“These maps will erode the voting rights advances achieved over decades in the Black Belt region,” Kathleen Roblez, senior voting rights counsel at Forward Justice, said at the press conference. “The new maps dismantle a district that is over 40% black, and it has consistently elected a black representative.”
“Let me start by being very clear. There’s a scripture in the Bible that says, ‘Woe unto those who legislate evil,’” said Barber at the press conference. “This that we have seen with this General Assembly and its leadership at the instructions of Donald Trump is political thievery. It’s political thievery. Actually, it’s political robbery.”
Barber also laid out plans for joining “C4 organizations that can call names and endorse and tell where these state legislators really stood on the issue.” He later mentioned the “Save America Movement,” and the group’s website lists him as a steering board member.
Barber said the Moral Monday-style protests seen in 2013 would return, including a “massive moral march on Raleigh.”
In response to a media question about lawmakers stating no racial data was used, Barber implied the new maps meant lawmakers were using the n-word.
“If you know what racism smells like and looks like, a person can actually call you black, but you know when they calling you the n-word because you don’t judge it by the words of their mouth, you judge it by the action of their policies,” Barber added.
