This Just In...SCOTUS Ruling on Moore v. Harper!

The Supreme Court ruled today that North Carolina can’t violate its state constitution to make rules concerning federal elections. Legislators backed a map that was illegally gerrymandered according to the state’s constitution, arguing that the independent state legislature theory” renders state courts and constitutions unable to interfere with anything related to federal elections. 

The map, which was drawn in 2021, was extremely partisan and essentially guaranteed that 14 Congressional seats would be Republican - ensuring a supermajority. In fact, the map was 99.9999% more favorable to Republicans than any other map. Opposition argued that the map violated North Carolina’s free election clause.  

Since SCOTUS previously ruled that federal courts can’t hear partisan gerrymandering cases, the case went through state courts, and the North Carolina Supreme Court eventually struck down the map. Legislators responded by issuing a new map that was still heavily gerrymandered, so the state court appointed a special master to create a map instead. Unsatisfied, two state legislators requested that SCOTUS step in to reinstate their map. 

SCOTUS rejected the emergency request to reinstate the map, but was willing to hear a case about elections going forward. In the end, they rejected the independent state theory and required that North Carolina follow their state constitution in matters related to federal elections - setting a good precedent going forward. 

Women4Change, along with many other organizations, filed an Amicus Brief for the case. It is dangerous to the foundations of our democracy for legislators to act outside of their charter. The Constitution was always intended to curb the discretionary power of lawmakers, and the independent state legislature theory is contrary to its purpose. We are thrilled that SCOTUS ruled against independent state legislature theory and decided that state legislators have to abide by their constitution. This is a great precedent for fair maps, and we view the outcome of Moore v. Harper as a victory for democracy and voting rights.