Is drawing a voting map that helps a political party illegal? Only in some states

A recent unusual ruling by North Carolina’s highest court has put a spotlight on the patchwork of state laws and court decisions that determine where maps of voting districts can be drawn to make elections less competitive and certain political parties more likely to win.

The practice is known as partisan gerrymandering, which, courts have found, both Republicans and Democrats have deployed when in control of redistricting.

In 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority ruled that partisan gerrymandering cases are “beyond the reach of the federal courts,” punting the issue to state courts. And national reform efforts have failed so far. In the last Congress, a Senate Republican filibuster repeatedly blocked Democratic-led voting rights legislation that would have included a ban on partisan gerrymandering.