North Carolina state Rep. Donny Lambeth (R)

North Carolina Republicans just can't quit their addiction to gerrymandering. GOP state Reps. Donny Lambeth and Debra Conrad have introduced a bill that redraws the City Council in Winston-Salem, a city of a quarter-million people, in what appears to be a classic racial gerrymander. The bill would replace the city's eight council districts with five districts and three at-large seats and would also make the mayor a voting member of the body. But the proposed districts heavily concentrate black voters into just two districts, which would diminish their voting power.

North Carolina Republicans have repeatedly used their legislative majorities to gerrymander every political institution they can, find from Congress to state courts all the way down to school boards, but they have faced defeats in court at almost every level. In fact, Republicans tried to gerrymander the City Council in nearby Greensboro back in 2015, but a federal court blocked that plan from ever going into effect in 2017 because of—and this will sound familiar—its discriminatory impact on black voters.

Republicans could pass this bill despite losing their veto-proof majorities in 2018, since Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper lacks the authority to veto redistricting laws such as this. However, if this gerrymander becomes law, yet another redistricting lawsuit is all but guaranteed.