A three-judge panel in federal court sided with state officials Friday in a decision upholding Arkansas’s congressional district lines and rejecting arguments that the map discriminates against Black voters by splitting Pulaski County between three of the state’s four House districts.

The lawsuit, Christian Ministerial Alliance v. Thurston, was the second of two challenges to the Arkansas congressional district lines redrawn after the 2020 U.S census. The other case, which included two Black state legislators as plaintiffs, was dismissed by the same panel of judges last fall.

Before 2020, all of Pulaski County was part of the state’s 2nd Congressional District, but the map drawn that year split up the county three ways. Most of Pulaski (and almost all of Little Rock) remained in the 2nd

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