Supreme Court blocks some redrawn North Carolina districts

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - The U.S. Supreme Court has blocked some but not all of the North Carolina legislative districts that federal judges redrew for this year's elections.

The justices partially granted Tuesday the request of Republican lawmakers who argue House and Senate maps they voted for last summer were legal and didn't need to be altered.

A three-judge panel determined those GOP-approved boundaries contained racial bias from maps approved in 2011 and violated the state constitution. So the judges hired an expert who changed about two dozen districts in all. The judges approved them last month.

The Supreme Court says the district changes made in and around Charlotte and Raleigh because of state constitutional concerns are blocked, but changes elsewhere related to racial bias must be used when candidate filing begins next week.