#Supreme Court hands defeat to North Carolina GOP in election law clash

The Supreme Court on Tuesday in a 6-3 decision rejected a bid to give state legislatures sweeping authority in drawing congressional maps and regulating federal elections, declining to endorse the so-called “independent state legislature” theory.

The decision preserves the ability for state courts to hear partisan gerrymandering lawsuits in congressional redistricting and review other federal election rules set by state legislatures.

It hands a defeat to North Carolina Republican lawmakers, who advanced the theory as they appealed a lawsuit involving the state’s congressional map.

The lawmakers had argued the federal Constitution vests the authority for regulating federal elections exclusively in state legislatures, so the North Carolina Supreme Court and state constitution had no power to block the legislature’s approved congressional map.

“The Elections Clause does not insulate state legislatures from the ordinary exercise of state judicial review,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority.

The Biden administration had warned adopting that theory would “wreak havoc in the administration of elections across the nation.”

For months, however, it remained unclear if the court would actually weigh in on the merits of the case.

Republicans retook control of North Carolina’s top court in the midterm elections and overruled the underlying decision. The high court was effectively hearing an appeal of a ruling that no longer existed.

On two occasions after oral arguments in the case, the justices had asked the parties to submit in writing their views about how to proceed, given the jurisdictional issues.

North Carolina Republican lawmakers had urged the Supreme Court to still reach a ruling on the merits of the theory. They were joined by one opposing group, which urged the justices to weigh in soon rather than let it hang as an open question in the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election.

The Biden administration and three other groups opposing the independent state legislature theory, on the other hand, told the court that the case was moot.