By Mark Sherman -
The Associated Press
The Supreme Court hears arguments Wednesday in a case that could upend future congressional and White House elections.
The court (with a conservative majority) considers what power state courts have to annul maps of parliamentary districts that may violate state constitutions.
North Carolina Republicans, who brought the case to the high court, argue that a provision of the Constitution known as the
election clause
gives state legislators virtually total control over "the time, place, and manner" of congressional elections, including redistricting, and excludes the courts from that process.
[Raphael Warnock is re-elected as Senator from Georgia in a close race and expands the Democratic majority in the Senate]
Republicans propose a concept called
the theory of the independent legislature,
never before adopted by the Supreme Court but cited with approval by conservative justices.
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Such a ruling would threaten hundreds of election laws, could require separate rules for federal and state elections on the same ballot, and prompt new efforts to redistrict congressionally to maximize partisan advantage.
The high court's decision in the North Carolina case could also further suggest how to interpret another part of the Constitution—not at issue in the current case—that gives state legislatures the authority to decide how electors are appointed. presidential elections (one of the battering rams that former President Donald Trump sought to use to overturn his electoral defeat in 2020).
[The Republican defeat in Georgia is more bad news for Trump. How important is it for his political future?]
What is the origin of the case in the Supreme Court?
The North Carolina Supreme Court struck down redistricting drawn by Republicans, who control the legislature, because they heavily favored the party.
The map produced by the surrogate court, which was used in the November congressional elections, yielded a 7-7 tie between Democrats and Republicans in the final result.
North Carolina is one of six states in which, in recent years, state courts have ruled that overly partisan redistricting of congressional districts violates their state constitutions.
The others are Florida, Maryland, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.
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State courts have become the only legal forum to challenge congressional partisan maps since the Supreme Court ruled in 2019 that such lawsuits cannot be brought in federal court.
The chief justice of the Supreme Court, the conservative John Roberts, noted that the state courts remained open for such disputes.
“Provisions in state statutes and state constitutions can provide standards and guidance for state courts to apply,” Roberts wrote, in an opinion joined by conservatives Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas.
But Alito, Gorsuch and Thomas wrote in March that they would have allowed the Republicans' map to be used this year.
Alito wrote to the three justices that "there must be some limit to the authority of state courts to overrule actions taken by state legislatures when they are prescribing rules for the conduct of federal elections." that the North Carolina Supreme Court exceeded those limits," he added.
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Kavanaugh has written separately about the need for federal courts to police state court actions when it comes to federal elections, citing an opinion from three conservatives in
Bush v.
Gore
ruling the 2000 presidential election. Thomas was one of three judges in that 22-year-old opinion, but the court decided on other grounds.
In North Carolina, Republican lawmakers won't have to wait for the court's decision to draw up a new congressional map that is expected to have more Republican districts.
Although Democrats won half of the state's 14 congressional seats, Republicans took control of the state Supreme Court.
Two newly elected Republican justices give them a 5-2 advantage that makes it more likely that the court will support a map with more Republican districts.