— Four Wake County House districts must be redrawn before the 2020 elections, a three-judge panel said Friday, finding the existing district lines unconstitutional.

The ruling won't change the lines for Tuesday's legislative elections, but the panel said the General Assembly must redraw the districts no later than the end of its next regular session or July 1 of next year, whichever comes first.

The districts involved are House District 36, currently held by Rep. Nelson Dollar, R-Wake; House District 37, held by Rep. John Adcock, R-Wake; House District 40, held by Rep. Joe John, D-Wake; and House District 41, held by Rep. Gale Adcock, D-Wake..

The case is part of a long fight over gerrymandering in North Carolina, and the Republican legislative majority may appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court. N.C. House Elections and Ethics Law Chairman David Lewis, R-Harnett, said leadership will review the ruling over the next few weeks and decide its next step.

"Obviously I disagree with the Decision and believe it will create voter uncertainty and confusion," Lewis said in a statement.

The issue with these districts goes back years. Republicans redrew them after a separate federal lawsuit found racial gerrymanders in a wider swath of state legislative districts and ordered a redraw.

The state NAACP and other plaintiffs took issue with that redraw, particularly in Wake County, saying the legislature reworked more districts than needed to satisfy the court's mandate. That, the group argued, violated the state constitution's prohibition on redrawing districts more than once a decade.

The judicial panel of Superior Court judges Paul C. Ridgeway, Joseph N. Crosswhite and Alma L. Hinton agreed unanimously.

Attorneys for the Southern Coalition for Social Justice brought this case, and the group has sued the legislature a number of times in recent years over gerrymandering. The League of Women Voters of NC, Democracy NC, the A. Philip Randolph Institute of NC and four Wake County voters were co-plaintiffs in the case, along with the NAACP.