Small toy people figures are seen in front of displayed North Carolina district maps in this illustration taken August 13, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

By Nate Raymond

(Reuters) -A panel of three federal judges in North Carolina on Wednesday cleared the way for a new congressional map to be used in the 2026 midterm elections, in a win for President Donald Trump's effort to help Republicans retain control of Congress next year.

The judges rejected arguments by the North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, Common Cause and several Black and Hispanic voters that the redrawn map the Republican-led North Carolina General Assembly enacted last month amounted to unconstitutional political retaliation and diluted the voting power of Black voters.

U.S. Circuit Judge Allison Rushing and U.S. District Judges Richard Myers and Thomas Schroeder, all appointed by Republican presidents including Trump, backed the state's contention that the mid-decade redistricting effort constituted nothing more than partisan gerrymandering, which the U.S. Supreme Court in 2019 ruled judges had no power to curb.

In seeking a preliminary injunction against the new map, the plaintiffs in the two lawsuits before the court failed to establish a likelihood of succeeding on their claims, the judges said.

"Claims of excessive partisanship in redistricting present political questions not suitable for resolution in federal courts," the judges wrote. "And the Supreme Court has rejected the argument that a mid-decade redistricting undertaken for partisan reasons presents an exception to this rule."

Bob Phillips, the executive director of Common Cause North Carolina, in a statement said the ruling "gives blessing to what will be the most gerrymandered congressional map in state history."

North Carolina was the third Republican-controlled state this year to heed Trump's call for a rare mid-decade redistricting, following Texas and Missouri.

Other Republican states are either planning or considering similar moves, while Democratic-governed California initiated its own effort targeting five Republican-held districts in the state.

Redistricting typically occurs only once a decade following the U.S. Census to account for population shifts. But Texas Republicans' decision to approve a new map intended to flip five Democratic seats has triggered a national redistricting battle as Trump pushes for an advantage to retain Republican control over the U.S. House of Representatives.

A 2-1 panel of federal judges on November 19 blocked Texas' new map, but that decision was put temporarily on hold by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito while the justices weigh whether to block it longer term.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Sonali Paul)