On Dec. 7, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in Moore v. Harper, a North Carolina redistricting case that centers on the independent state legislature theory. The outcome could upend longstanding practices in elections. Here’s a primer.
of state courts or governors to have a say. The case also raises questions about whether changes made to election laws through voter-approved ballot measures, such as Alaska’s adoption of ranked choice voting, would be allowed to stand.
However, Timothy Moore, the state’s House speaker, spearheaded a lawsuit that argued that state courts and state constitutions don’t have power over federal elections, citing language in the U.S. Constitution. Moore’s name headlines the lawsuit, along with that of Rebecca Harper, a voter involved in the lawsuit against the initial maps.
Article II, Section 1: "Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors." The question now for the Supreme Court is whether the U.S. Constitution intended to limit the power over elections to state legislatures only. If the justices fully backed the doctrine, state courts could no longer apply state constitutions to adjudicate partisan gerrymandering claims involving congressional districts, said Bertrall Ross, a University of Virginia law professor. That would likely lead to more extreme gerrymandering, he said.
This scenario might mirror one that occurred in Ohio in 2022, when a narrowly divided court found that the Republican Legislature’s maps were partisan gerrymanders, but the Legislature and state officials, all of them Republican, ran out the legal clock before the election without having to redraw the maps.
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