US Supreme Court rejects NCGOP’s extremist legal theory some considered the ‘death knell of democracy’
In a surprising decision, earlier this week, the conservative U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 against North Carolina Republican leaders in an elections case that could have upended our democracy.
The ruling on the case, Moore v. Harper, rejected the NCGOP’s argument that state legislatures should have control of federal redistricting and elections, saying that state courts have the authority to curtail legislatures’ actions.
The Supreme Court upheld the previous decision by North Carolina’s then Democratic-controlled state Supreme Court ruling that the NCGOP’s congressional redistricting plan was “excessively partisan.”
- According to The Associated Press, Moore v. Harper was the fourth major case of the Supreme Court’s current term in which liberal and conservative justices joined forces “to reject the most aggressive legal arguments put forth by conservative state elected officials and advocacy groups.”
- While the decision is good news for the country, the actual effect of the High Court’s ruling will be minimal in North Carolina because the state Supreme Court, which now has a 5-2 right-wing majority, has already undone the redistricting ruling that was at the center of the case.
- Had the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the NCGOP, more than 170 state constitutional provisions, over 650 state laws delegating election policy authority, and thousands of other electoral regulations would have been at risk.
Gov. Roy Cooper praised the decision but also acknowledged that it does nothing to stop Republicans who control the legislature from drawing a congressional map that is more favorable to them.
Gov. Cooper, who by state law can’t block redistricting plans approved by lawmakers, said that “Republican legislators in North Carolina and across the country remain a very real threat to democracy as they continue to pass laws to manipulate elections for partisan gain by interfering with the freedom to vote.”
