North Carolina Republican legislative leaders are trying to move a lawsuit challenging the state’s congressional map drawn in 2016 from state court to federal court.

The GOP lawmakers filed a notice Monday in the partisan redistricting litigation that voters filed last month in Wake County court, which has been ruled and upheld that state lawmakers must redraw the districting map before the next statewide election. The lawmakers’ attorneys said the venue change is necessary because complying with the plaintiffs’ demands for a new congressional map would conflict state redistricting rules with the U.S. Constitution and Voting Rights Act.

A federal court granting the move could scuttle the plaintiffs’ case, since the U.S. Supreme Court recently declared federal courts lack authority to rule on partisan gerrymandering claims.

State judges already set a hearing next week on the plaintiffs’ request to block the map’s use and demand lawmakers redraw it for the 2020 elections.

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