Story highlights Judges deny request to hold special election but set redistricting deadline

High court upheld finding 28 districts were unconstitutional racial gerrymanders

(CNN) North Carolina does not have to hold special elections ahead of its 2018 spring legislative session, a panel of three federal judges ruled in a gerrymandering case.

But the judges on Monday set a September 1 deadline for state lawmakers to "adopt and enact remedial districting plans" after they had ruled last year that 28 legislative districts were unconstitutional racial gerrymanders. The US Supreme Court had affirmed the lower court's findings in June.

The plaintiffs had argued the state's plans packed African-Americans in districts already with a high percentage of black voters, thus diluting their presence in neighboring districts.

In August 2016, the US District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina found that that 28 legislative districts "are racial gerrymanders in violation of the Equal Protection Clause."

North Carolina then took the case to the Supreme Court.

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