How a Supreme Court case could inject chaos into the 2024 elections
by Ryan King, Breaking Politics Reporter |
May 14, 2023 10:25 AM
A hotly contested election case from North Carolina has the potential to cause confusion for 2024 election procedures if it's not resolved in time, some experts fear.
At issue is a controversial concept known as the "independent state legislature theory," which posits that state legislatures have broad discretion over administering federal elections at the state level, with minimal checks and balances from state courts or even the governor.
Members of the Supreme Court are contemplating a case — Moore v. Harper — that explores the theory, but there are concerns that the high court will not adequately resolve the issue in time for the 2024 elections.
Moore v. Harper features a dispute over North Carolina's Supreme Court dismissing a GOP-backed apportionment plan for being too partisan.
Republicans filed a challenge to the high court, but then conservatives managed to regain control of the state Supreme Court. The now-5-2 Republican-majority court subsequently opted to rehear the redistricting case. The court scraped its prior ruling late last month, which was the underpinning of the Moore v. Harper case pending before the Supreme Court.
Now there are questions about whether the Supreme Court will reach a final verdict on the legitimacy of the independent state legislature theory. This is in part because there are now major questions about standing given that the North Carolina state Supreme Court overturned the prior ruling at issue.
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