berg80
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Supreme Court election case pits top judges against GOP lawmakers
The country's top state judges have taken aim at a Supreme Court case petitioned by North Carolina Republican lawmakers that seeks to determine whether courts or legislatures have the final say over congressional district lines.
The Conference of Chief Justices, a bipartisan group of top judges in all 50 states, filed an amicus brief Tuesday in the high court case Moore v. Harper, expressing disagreement with North Carolina GOP lawmakers over a map drawn by the GOP-led state legislature for the state's 14 House districts. The state Supreme Court smacked down the map on Feb. 14 by a 4-3 vote and ruled the districts were gerrymandered, or drawn in a way that was intentionally biased against Democrats.
North Carolina Republican House Speaker Tim Moore, Senate Leader Phil Berger, and other top GOP lawmakers are petitioners in the case and argue the U.S. Constitution's elections clause grants authority to state legislatures to regulate the "times, places, and manner of holding elections" and that state executive and judicial branches should have no say in the process.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/...agree-with-nc-gop-in-scotus-elections-dispute
Some will characterize this as nothing more than a turf war between legislatures and state courts. Yet the implications are enormous.
Supreme Court to hear case on state authority over elections
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear a case that could dramatically change the way elections for Congress and the presidency are conducted by handing more power to state legislatures and blocking state courts from reviewing challenges to the procedures and results.
The justices will consider whether state courts, when finding violations of their state constitutions, can order changes to federal elections and the once-a-decade redrawing of congressional districts. The case probably will be argued in the fall.
“This case could profoundly alter the balance of power in states and prevent state courts and agencies from providing protections for people’s right to vote,” said Rick Hasen, a law professor at the University of California, Irvine. “There’s a wide range of ways the court could rule on this. Taken to its extreme, it would be a radical reworking of our system of running elections.”
https://apnews.com/article/2022-mid...state-courts-712d5aa719884bab9652d3c132ee56c6
Let's be clear. What NC Repubs are seeking is unilateral authority given to the legislature over how elections are conducted and how district lines are drawn. So that no matter how egregiously partisan redistricting potentially is, each state Supreme Court will have no power to order that the lines be redrawn. Meaning we will see a lot more states like WI where Biden won a slim majority of votes in the 2020 election and there is a Dem governor. But due to gerrymandering Repubs have a hammer lock on 2/3 of the congressional districts. Thereby allowing Repubs to vote for a far right agenda without fear of voter reprisal.
Trump sycophant John Eastman (remember him) has gone so far to suggest in his writings that given the power Repubs seek, the state legislature could throw out the result of an election and decide for itself which electors will represent a state. Subverting the will of the majority being the aim of so many initiatives from Repubs as to justify the assertion they have become an anti-democratic party.
The country's top state judges have taken aim at a Supreme Court case petitioned by North Carolina Republican lawmakers that seeks to determine whether courts or legislatures have the final say over congressional district lines.
The Conference of Chief Justices, a bipartisan group of top judges in all 50 states, filed an amicus brief Tuesday in the high court case Moore v. Harper, expressing disagreement with North Carolina GOP lawmakers over a map drawn by the GOP-led state legislature for the state's 14 House districts. The state Supreme Court smacked down the map on Feb. 14 by a 4-3 vote and ruled the districts were gerrymandered, or drawn in a way that was intentionally biased against Democrats.
North Carolina Republican House Speaker Tim Moore, Senate Leader Phil Berger, and other top GOP lawmakers are petitioners in the case and argue the U.S. Constitution's elections clause grants authority to state legislatures to regulate the "times, places, and manner of holding elections" and that state executive and judicial branches should have no say in the process.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/...agree-with-nc-gop-in-scotus-elections-dispute
Some will characterize this as nothing more than a turf war between legislatures and state courts. Yet the implications are enormous.
Supreme Court to hear case on state authority over elections
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear a case that could dramatically change the way elections for Congress and the presidency are conducted by handing more power to state legislatures and blocking state courts from reviewing challenges to the procedures and results.
The justices will consider whether state courts, when finding violations of their state constitutions, can order changes to federal elections and the once-a-decade redrawing of congressional districts. The case probably will be argued in the fall.
“This case could profoundly alter the balance of power in states and prevent state courts and agencies from providing protections for people’s right to vote,” said Rick Hasen, a law professor at the University of California, Irvine. “There’s a wide range of ways the court could rule on this. Taken to its extreme, it would be a radical reworking of our system of running elections.”
https://apnews.com/article/2022-mid...state-courts-712d5aa719884bab9652d3c132ee56c6
Let's be clear. What NC Repubs are seeking is unilateral authority given to the legislature over how elections are conducted and how district lines are drawn. So that no matter how egregiously partisan redistricting potentially is, each state Supreme Court will have no power to order that the lines be redrawn. Meaning we will see a lot more states like WI where Biden won a slim majority of votes in the 2020 election and there is a Dem governor. But due to gerrymandering Repubs have a hammer lock on 2/3 of the congressional districts. Thereby allowing Repubs to vote for a far right agenda without fear of voter reprisal.
Trump sycophant John Eastman (remember him) has gone so far to suggest in his writings that given the power Repubs seek, the state legislature could throw out the result of an election and decide for itself which electors will represent a state. Subverting the will of the majority being the aim of so many initiatives from Repubs as to justify the assertion they have become an anti-democratic party.
