UPDATE: And now the full North Carolina Court of Appeals has vacated the panel’s stay, meaning that candidate filing is back on (for now). The state supreme court may ultimately have the last word on this.

An intermediate appellate court in North Carolina stopped candidate filing while an appeal of the congressional and state legislative district maps proceeds to the state supreme court. Of note, Republicans have been claiming that they ignored partisanship in drafting the new maps (presumably to circumvent the trial court decisions a couple years ago striking down the 2010s plans on partisan gerrymandering grounds). However, this claim is risible given that the new maps would create significantly more Republican districts than would ever be expected to arise in a truly party-blind process.

A court order Monday temporarily blocked candidates from filing to run in the 2022 elections under the districts drawn by Republican state lawmakers.

The order came from the N.C. Court of Appeals in a lawsuit which claims the political districts, drawn to be used in every election from 2022 to 2030, are unconstitutionally gerrymandered.

The challengers in the lawsuit have been trying to delay candidate filing so that, if a court does order the maps to be redrawn, those new maps could be used in next year’s elections instead of having to wait until 2024.