Today a three-judge considering partisan gerrymanders under the North Carolina state constitution issued two orders. In one order, the court approved the North Carolina General Assembly’s maps for state legislative district lines passed after the court had earlier found a partisan gerrymander.

In the other order, the court held that the congressional districts used in North Carolina likely are also partisan gerrymanders under the state constitution. The court temporarily blocked the use of those districts. The court will expedite consideration of a summary judgment motion of the plaintiffs to fully resolve the issues, but in the meantime the court urged the North Carolina General Assembly to draw maps that would solve the gerrymandering problem.

Plaintiffs were not happy with the legislatively drawn maps in relation to the state legislative districts, and they could choose to appeal this to the state supreme court, which could order the alteration of additional district lines or remand it to the lower court to have new lines drawn by special master Nate Persily.

The North Carolina defendants have an interesting choice to make. They could appeal the granting of this preliminary injunction in the state supreme court, though they are not likely to get a very good reception there given both the egregious nature of the gerrymander (it was the subject of the Rucho case at the U.S. Supreme Court deciding only federal constitutional issues) and the Democratic lean of the state supreme court. Alternatively, the state defendants could decide to redraw the district lines now, knowing that in doing so they might end up getting something approved which is more positive from their viewpoint than what might be done with a special master.

Indeed, one might think of these two simultaneous opinions as offering a carrot and stick to North Carolina Republicans and their legislative leaders.