A panel of federal judges has denied a request from Republican lawmakers to delay redrawing all of North Carolina's 13 congressional districts.
The judges who denied this request for a stay are the same three judges which unanimously ruled all of North Carolina's congressional districts are illegal partisan gerrymanders.
They have also given lawmakers until January 24 to redraw the districts. That deadline is what this stay had sought to delay.
Saying lawmakers had failed to meet the "heavy burden" required to stay the order, the panel was blunt in their response, but not brief. The original motion from lawmakers was comprised of seven pages. The judge's denial was 21 pages long.
Republican leaders said they will take their appeal and request for a stay to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The judges here said basically have fun with that. And, after citing the significant differences in the North Carolina case and two others already before the U.S. Supreme Court, the denial stated that these make "it all the more likely that the Supreme Court will affirm this Court’s judgment, regardless of what standard the Supreme Court adopts."
