Is the legislature of a state the sole arbiter of elections? Can this body ignore its own state’s constitution or courts or even the will of its citizens with impunity? This dystopic world could easily have happened had the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) ruled differently in Moore v. Harper, the “independent state legislature theory” case from North Carolina.
The theory represented an extremist and narrow interpretation of the U.S. Constitution’s election clauses in Articles I and II of the document.
Here is a brief recap: Following the 2020 Census, the state of North Carolina gained a Congressional seat and the state legislature redrew its map of Congressional districts using extreme gerrymandering techniques. Not so fast, said the state’s supreme court. The Republican-dominated legislature sued for the right to implement its newly drawn map. Eventually, SCOTUS decided to hear the case in its 2022-23 term.
In his 6-3 majority ruling, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that the Constitution’s election clause “does not insulate state legislatures from the ordinary exercise of state judicial review.” In other words, sorry legislators, you CANNOT act alone in a vacuum. Laws and policies enacted by a state legislature are indeed subject to the checks and balances that are already in place, including the state’s constitution, its judicial system, and its Governor.
Chief Justice Roberts further insinuated that the federal courts – including the Supreme Court – will be watching. State courts, he stated, do not have “free rein” and may not “arrogate to themselves the power vested in state legislatures to regulate federal elections.”
Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, Kavanaugh, Barrett, and Jackson concurred with the majority opinion.
The three dissenting justices — Thomas, Alito and Gorsuch — suggested the case should have been dismissed by the high court. Following the 2022 midterms, the composition of the North Carolina supreme court changed, and the Republican-majority state supreme court reversed its previous decision, blessing the severely gerrymandered Congressional map after all. Therefore, the three dissenting justices considered Moore v. Harper to be moot.
Whew! Now all we must worry about is the usual cadre of election deniers and pseudo-fascists trying to accede to positions of power.