Is the Supreme Court About to Upend American Election Laws?
New York TimesNov 22, 2022
The Facts
In a 6-3 ruling in the case of Moore v. Harper, SCOTUS has rejected the "independent state legislature" theory, which the North Carolina GOP argued granted state legislatures nearly unlimited control over elections.
The court ruled that the North Carolina Supreme Court did not overstep its powers when it rejected a congressional districting plan as excessively partisan, with the state attempting to invoke the independent state legislature theory for the first time in a major court case.
The Spin
Democratic narrative
The American people can breathe a sigh of relief after SCOTUS rejected a legal theory that would have given states a license to rig, reject, or outright steal elections, which is especially pertinent as the GOP refuses to rebuke former Pres. Trump about the 2020 election. If the court had affirmed independent state legislature theory, it would have destroyed American democracy as we know it and given control of elections to partisan lawmakers without review or oversight.
Republican narrative
There has been much hysteria surrounding the independent state legislature theory on the left, without realizing that states already have the power to "rig" elections if they so choose. If state lawmakers wished, they could replace presidential electors with those willing to give them a favorable result, which is something states rejected firmly when Trump made requests to do so. Nothing has changed, as it's still political convention, not heavy-handed lawmaking, that keeps our democracy in check.
