On January 9, a 3-judge U.S. District Court ruled that North Carolina’s U.S. House districts comprise an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander. Common Cause v Rucho, m.d., 1:16cv-1026. The vote was 3-0. Judges James A. Wynn (an Obama appointee) and W. Earl Britt (a Carter appointee) wrote the majority opinion, which says that the First Amendment requires districting for partisan office to avoid any attempt to give one particular party an advantage over any other party. This is a radical conclusion that no other final decision in any other case has concluded. They also said that the “Elections Clause” (Article I, sec. 4) also forbids partisanship in redistricting. The part of the decision about the Elections Clause is on pages 175-191.
The third judge, William L. Osteen, a Bush Jr. appointee, wrote separately to say that he believes the North Carolina plan is unconstitutional because it violates the Equal Protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
This case has been filed August 5, 2016, after the North Carolina legislature had redrawn the U.S. House districts. The original 2011 plan had been declared an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, so the legislature drew new districts that were then attacked as an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander. The state had tried to persuade the judges to stay this case until the U.S. Supreme Court hands down its decisions from Wisconsin and Maryland, but on September 8, 2017, these judges said they would not wait. They clearly intend this decision to be in time for new districts to be drawn for the 2018 election. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link. The majority opinion is 191 pages long; the Osteen decision, at the back, is 14 pages.