The League of Women Voters (LWV) announced it would hold a rally Wednesday on the steps of the Supreme Court as the nine Justices hear oral arguments in the case of Moore v Harper.
In Moore v Harper, the state of North Carolina is advancing a Constitutional argument called the “Independent State Legislature Theory.” It asserts that a state’s legislators have sole authority over its elections, to the exclusion of its governor—or its courts. In other words, the state’s legislators are the first and last word on an election, and no legal challenge can even be considered.
The specific case before the Justices Wednesday deals with a dispute over North Carolina’s congressional maps. After the state’s supreme court struck down a congressional district map drawn up by the Republican-led state legislature, the legislature appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, saying the state court had overstepped its authority.
Depending on how the Justices rule, the Moore v Harper has the potential to redefine the balance of power within each of the 50 states over who decides elections—just months before Americans vote in the 2024 Presidential election.
LWV will be joined at its Supreme Court rally by the organizations Common Cause and Southern Coalition for Social Justice to “spotlight the negative impact of the case’s Independent State Legislature Theory on voters,” LWV said in a press release, which adds, “If the Independent State Legislature Theory is adopted, it would remove the governmental checks and balances for election administration in every state.”
