The Supreme Court of the United States examines Wednesday, December 7 an electoral law file which arouses strong fears on the left - but not only - because it could revolutionize the organization of the polls for the White House and the Congress.
The hearing will focus on a new legal theory proposed by Republican lawmakers in North Carolina that, if adopted, would give lawmakers in all 50 states free rein to organize federal elections.
Postal voting, office opening hours, documents to be presented to register on the electoral lists...: the Constitution entrusts the legislators of each State with the task of setting
"the time, place and procedure"
of polls.
Their laws, however, are subject to review by local courts and possible veto by their state governor.
This is what elected officials in North Carolina want to change.
For them, the Constitution
“places the regulation of federal elections in the hands of state legislators and no one else”
.
This so-called “independent state legislators”
theory
has
“never been validated by the Supreme Court even though it has been circulating for some time”,
noted jurist Amy Mason Saharia during a presentation of the case before the legal institute. cato.
Four of its nine judges expressed their interest in this reading
"and there is a chance that the Court will adopt this doctrine"
, according to Me Saharia.
Read alsoThe American presidential election under the sword of the Supreme Court
Democratic North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper believes such a shutdown
“could fundamentally transform American democracy
,” already weakened by former President Donald Trump’s attempts to reverse his defeat in the 2020 election.
“Our democracy is a fragile ecosystem that needs checks and balances to survive,”
he wrote in a column published by the
New York Times
.
Accusing the elected Republicans of his state of having
"manipulated the electoral process for political gain"
, the governor was delighted that the local justice was able to block their efforts.
One of these battles is at the heart of the case before the Supreme Court.
With the 2020 census seeing an increase in population in North Carolina, the state gained an additional seat in the House of Representatives.
Its parliamentarians then redrew the contours of the constituencies.
In February, their map was struck down by the state Supreme Court, which ruled it favored the Republican Party by lumping Democratic voters into certain precincts to dilute their vote elsewhere.
A second map did not seem fairer, so the local high court appointed an independent expert to take care of it.
This extremist interpretation of the Constitution would help local elected officials disenfranchise some voters, carve up constituencies as they see fit, and potentially sabotage election results.
»
Sophia Lin Lakin, ACLU
North Carolina lawmakers then turned to the US Supreme Court, blaming the local judiciary for usurping their role.
Its sages refused to intervene urgently and the expert's card served well in the mid-term elections in November, allowing seven representatives from each party to be elected.
But the Court wished to address the substantive issue.
In the run-up to the hearing, President Joe Biden's government, Democratic state and senators, law professors, and every major civil rights association (ACLU, NAACP, ADL, HRW) wrote to the Court to dissuade her from adopting the new theory.
"This extremist interpretation of the Constitution would help local elected officials disenfranchise some voters, carve up constituencies as they see fit, and potentially sabotage the election outcome
," Sophia Lin Lakin told reporters. ACLU.
Our political system would suffer greatly if the butchering of electoral districts were left out of control.
»
Former California Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
The Republican Party deemed
this alarmist speech
"absurd" .
Giving reason to the elected officials of North Carolina
“will not give carte blanche to the state legislatures”
, whose work can always be challenged in federal courts, he pleaded in an argument sent to the high court.
But in the conservative ranks, the theory is not unanimous.
“Our political system would suffer greatly if the butchering of electoral districts was left out of control
,” said former Republican Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The Court must render its decision before June 30.