From AMERICANMILITARYNEWS.COM
The United States Supreme Court announced on Thursday that it will consider a case that could dramatically change how federal elections are conducted by reviewing the “independent state legislature” theory, which would give state legislatures the authority to set rules for federal elections even if those rules violated state constitutions or helped facilitate partisan gerrymandering.
The case in question is Moore v. Harper, in which the North Carolina GOP argued that the state legislature could enact voting laws and write district maps free from the courts scrutiny.
The theory comes from the “Elections Clause” in Article 1, Section 4 of the U. S. Constitution, which states, “The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators.”
In their petition to the Supreme Court, North Carolina’s Republican lawmakers asserted that state courts could not question the legislature.
“By its plain text, the Elections Clause creates the power to regulate the times, places, and manner of federal elections and then vests that power in ‘the Legislature” of each State,’ ” they wrote. “It does not leave the States free to limit the legislature’s constitutionally vested power, or place it elsewhere in the State’s governmental machinery, as a matter of state law.”
The North Carolina Department of Justice argued … (Read more)
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