North Carolina’s Legislative Maps Are Thrown Out by State Court Panel

The SCOTUS ruled that it could not navigate the political waters of partisan gerrymandering. However, they explicitly left open the door for state courts to do it. In North Carolina they did just that, shot down the Republican map as an illegal partisan gerrymander, and pointed to the state constitution as the reason for it.

It is important to note that half the state constitutions contain a similar clause about "free elections".