North Carolina’s expanded congressional delegation isn’t a done deal yet, but Monday’s Supreme Court rejection of a challenge from the state of Utah removes one major hurdle to adding a 13th N.C. seat in the U.S. House.

Based on the 2000 population count, the Census Bureau awarded North Carolina another Congressional seat, but that was challenged by Utah, which fell short of getting a fourth seat by only 856 residents. Utah claimed it was cheated out of the additional seat because the Census Bureau did not count 11,000 Mormon missionaries serving overseas. A three-judge federal panel in Salt Lake City had rejected that argument earlier this year, and Monday’s Supreme Court ruling lets the original decision against Utah stand.

The high court’s one-sentence ruling didn’t elaborate on its reason for rejecting the challenge. But it didn’t really need to. The lower court ruling had made it clear that there were sound reasons for the census to count military personnel and federal workers serving overseas, including a previous Supreme Court ruling, but no convincing argument for singling out Mormon missionaries — the majority of whom hail from Utah — to be included in the head count when other U.S. citizens living overseas are omitted.

While North Carolina officials were pleased with the ruling, they’re still anxiously watching a second legal challenge from Utah that could have ramifications extending far beyond the N.C.-Utah dispute. That appeal challenges the practice of estimating a household’s size based on that of its close neighbors when census workers can’t get firsthand information on specific residences. Utah contends this statistical sampling method is so subjective it does not meet Constitutional requirements for an “actual enumeration” of citizens. In the 2000 census, the estimate of uncounted households resulted in an additional 32,457 N.C. residents — or .4 percent of the state’s 8,067,673 total. Utah gained only 5,393 residents, or .2 percent of its 2,236,714 population. That percentage gap is one of the things Census Bureau representatives and N.C. officials may have to defend when the case comes up for review. A ruling in Utah’s favor would give it that fourth seat, leave North Carolina with 12 — and potentially throw a portion of the census count into chaos.

A ruling on the second challenge isn’t expected until early next year. Meanwhile, competing Democratic and Republican versions of the state’s redrawn 13-seat Congressional map are pending in a state House committee. Even if the 2000 census count withstands Utah’s second challenge, North Carolina legislators still have to come up with a compromise map, and the Justice Department still has to approve the redrawn lines. Given the numerous legal challenges filed against the state’s previous congressional map and its subsequent revisions, even Justice Department approval won’t necessarily be the last word. So for at least a few more months, North Carolina’s Congressional map may not have a final shape, but it will be on familiar ground — in limbo.