The court has started processing the case challenging the voting rules. Civil rights activists fear that conservative judges will allow politicians to influence election results.
WASHINGTON This week, the US Supreme Court began hearing the Moore v. Harper legal case that shook the whole country. A lot is at stake, possibly the entire future of US federal elections.
According to legal experts, the hearing could lead to the Supreme Court setting a precedent that allows state legislatures to freely decide on voting laws. In the extreme, this would mean that both how the voting is organized and how the election result is accepted would be up to the politicians.
Simply put, the democratic credibility of US federal elections is now in the hands of a Supreme Court dominated by a clear majority of conservative justices.
Where did the legal case originate?
Moore v. Harper began About the dispute that started with the division of electoral districts in North Carolina (you will go to another service).
The state Supreme Court did not accept the redistricting drawn by the Republican-majority state Congress because it so clearly favored the Republican Party.
Lawmakers challenged the decision to the federal Supreme Court, which decided to take it up. The Supreme Court is now considering whether state legislatures can override their own constitutions when enacting laws related to federal elections.
What are the arguments for and against?
Basically, voting laws in the United States are governed by federal and state constitutions. So the basic idea is that politically elected legislators cannot arbitrarily change voting laws.
However, North Carolina lawmakers have invoked a legal theory called theory of independent state legislation (you move to another service). According to it, only state legislatures have the right to enact laws related to voting.
According to the general interpretation of the Constitution, this should not be possible, but legislation must take place within the framework of the Constitution, be it federal or state legislation.
What effects can the legal case have and when is a decision expected?
Currently, Moore v. Harper is before the Supreme Court, and a decision is expected by the summer.
Currently, the Supreme Court has six conservative justices appointed by Republican presidents and three liberal justices appointed by Democratic presidents.
In the past year alone, the Supreme Court has made decisions that are considered to have represented a radical conservative line regarding, among other things, gun laws and abortion rights. For example, in the abortion decision made in the summer, the Supreme Court stressed the right of the states to their own legislation.
In the horror scenario of civil rights activists, conservative justices would give state legislatures the power to override constitutional limits on voting rights.
One can see from the North Carolina case that it would lead to extreme gerrymandering. It could also lead to new voting laws, which could, for example, limit the right to early voting or other rights that were meant to guarantee everyone the opportunity to vote.
What makes the case particularly exciting is that the conservative judges’ line is not self-evident. In Wednesday’s hearing, conservative judges also asked skeptical questions, based on which it would appear that the judges are not ready to support the theory of independent state legislation.
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