WASHINGTON — Today, the US Supreme Court affirmed the role of state court judicial review in a major victory for checks and balances and the constitutional rights of voters. The Court rejected a state legislature’s exclusive and independent authority over federal elections and was resolute in not expanding that authority through the dangerous “Independent State Legislature” theory.
The case, Moore v. Harper, involved the “independent state legislature theory” (ISLT), which suggested that state courts did not have the power to review actions of state legislatures relating to federal elections. The case that brought the issue to the US Supreme Court — Harper v. Hall — raised concerns around the extreme partisan gerrymandering of North Carolina’s congressional map. The case was overturned by the North Carolina Supreme Court on April 28, 2023, but the question of ISLT at the US Supreme Court remained. In today’s decision, the Court rejected the ISLT.
“Every year, voters face attacks on their rights from state legislatures seeking more power for politicians over the will of the people,” said Virginia Kase Solomón, CEO of the League of Women Voters of the United States. “Today’s decision is a major victory for our democracy because it rejects the dangerous idea that state legislatures have free rein to determine the rules for elections in their states. We applaud the Supreme Court’s decision to reject the ISLT and affirm the voice of voters.”
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“For 233 years and counting, no court has ever found that state election laws are unconstrained by state constitutional requirements, because this is a fantasy that is antithetical to our system of government,” said Fair Elections Center’s litigation director Jon Sherman. “Finally, the US Supreme Court has buried this extremist theory once and for all.”
Last year, the League of Women Voters of the United States and League chapters from all 50 states and the District of Columbia filed an amicus brief in Moore v. Harper, focusing on the massive implications of the ISLT for elections across the country, voters and election workers, and American democracy itself. The League is represented by Fair Elections Center and O’Melveny & Myers LLP.
Read the opinion here.
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