http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/22/politics/north-carolina-gerrymander/index.html
The Supreme Court struck down two congressional district maps in North Carolina Monday, holding that the state had engaged in an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.
The ruling is a victory for the black North Carolina voters who had argued the plans packed African-Americans in districts that already had a high percentage of African-Americans, thus diluting their presence in other districts.
As a result, the ruling sends the North Carolina legislature back to the drawing board – with significant potential implications for the 2018 midterm elections. The state has been nearly split along partisan lines in recent statewide elections – such as for governor and president – but Republicans control 10 US House seats compared to only three for Democrats.
Gorsuch did not participate, but it wouldn’t have mattered as the vote was 8-0 and 5-3 in the two different cases.
Why didn’t Gorsuch participate? He is on the court now. He already participated in one decision not to hear a case.
I don’t know in this particular case, but considering the length of cases in general, he may have been around for the opinion-writing section, and even most of the arguments, but if you weren’t on the court when the arguments started, it would be pretty expected not to participate.