RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Voting-rights advocates are hoping that a Supreme Court ruling against two North Carolina congressional districts helps them argue cases of improperly drawn electoral maps elsewhere.

Because those districts were already redrawn for the 2016 election, the ruling doesn’t require immediate changes from North Carolina. But it looms large in other battles still unfolding over voting districts there and elsewhere.

Also pending before the high court are separate challenges to state House and Senate districts that have helped the GOP cement veto-proof majorities in both chambers. Meanwhile, further challenges to North Carolina’s current congressional districts are pending.

Marc Elias is the lawyer who argued the North Carolina case decided Monday. He said the ruling will serve as a warning to Republicans elsewhere about improperly using race to draw electoral districts.

 

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