Leading Off ● North Carolina: In a major sign that it is likely to eventually block Republicans' newly enacted congressional and legislative gerrymanders in a pair of pending cases, North Carolina's Democratic-leaning Supreme Court temporarily stayed candidate filing for all races in an order on Wednesday and also pushed out the state's primary from March 8 to May 17, with runoffs taking place if needed in July in races where no candidate wins 30% or more of the vote. As we previously detailed, the GOP's new congressional gerrymander of this evenly divided swing state would create 10 safely red districts and just three that would be safely blue, with Republicans also turning Black Democratic Rep. G.K. Butterfield's district into a swing seat that's been trending hard to the GOP by diluting Black voters, prompting Butterfield to retire. The legislative maps would likewise make it impossible for Democrats to win majorities unless they win more votes than the GOP by a wide margin, and Republicans refused to even consider the Voting Rights Act when drawing the districts. Last week, a trial court had rejected the plaintiffs' request to temporarily block the usage of the new maps while the two consolidated cases proceeded on the merits, but after the plaintiffs appealed to pause candidate filing, the high court justices ordered the trial court hearing the two cases to issue a ruling by Jan. 11. Filing will re-open once «a final judgment on the merits of plaintiffs' claims, including any appeals» is reached. Read more