20 Democratic Senators Ask Supreme Court to Reject Once-Fringe Theory in Elections Case [View all]
Source: New York Times
A group of 20 Democratic senators filed a brief on Wednesday urging the Supreme Court to reject a legal argument that would give state legislatures extraordinary power over federal elections.
The brief, filed by Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, draws parallels to the checks and balances of the federal government — especially Congress — as a clear indication that the so-called independent state legislature theory runs afoul of the Constitution.
The senators argue that while the Constitution grants state legislatures the responsibility of setting the time, location and manner of federal elections, the Constitution also requires state legislatures to follow the same procedures when making rules for federal elections that they use to make other state laws. The clause, they write, “does not allow state legislatures to bypass the same restrictions imposed by state constitutions — the very documents that create and empower them.”
Once considered a fringe argument found only in the far reaches of conservative legal thought, the independent state legislature theory is now at the center of a redistricting case in North Carolina before the Supreme Court. Set to be heard in December, that case, Moore v. Harper, involves a congressional map drawn by the Republican-led legislature that was rejected by the state’s Supreme Court as a partisan gerrymander. Republican lawmakers sued, arguing that the court had no authority to reject the map. The North Carolina Republicans have argued that the clause means state legislatures alone are responsible for drawing congressional districts, and the courts have no role to play.
Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/20-democratic-senators-ask-supreme-court-to-reject-once-fringe-theory-in-elections-case/ar-AA13ouLb
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