A federal court challenge alleging malapportionment and anticipating legislative failure to timely redraw the lines after the 2020 Census.  After lines were drawn, plaintiffs amended their complaint to challenge the state House and congressional plans as unjustifiably based predominantly on race and as intentionally racially discriminatory.

On June 17, 2022, as a means to settle the claims over the state House, the Governor signed new state House lines passed by the legislature, effective for the 2024 elections.

On Jan. 6, 2023, the three-judge federal court found that congressional district 1 was unjustifiably drawn predominantly based on race and with discriminatory racial intent, in violation of the constitution; the court rejected the plaintiffs’ other claims.  The state appealed directly to the U.S. Supreme Court, and a remedial plan was deferred pending the outcome of that appeal.  On Mar. 28, 2024, with no Supreme Court opinion forthcoming, the trial court ordered the temporary use of the 2022 map in the 2024 elections.

On May 23, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the trial court, and held that plaintiffs did not provide sufficient evidence to prove that the state had predominantly relied on race when drawing congressional district 1. The majority found that the “high priority that the legislature gave to its partisan aim” better explained the decision to move black voters from one district to another. The case was remanded to the district court for resolution of the intentional discrimination claim.