1/3/2024 0 Comments Supreme antihero 2020![]() ![]() Thomas, writing in dissent, asserted the Supreme Court should have dismissed the case rather than deciding it.Conservative Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Sam Alito dissented. The decision was 6-3 with the court's three-justice liberal wing joining Roberts along with Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.But state courts, Roberts wrote, "retain the authority to apply state constitutional restraints when legislatures act under the power conferred upon them by the Elections Clause.".That's what's known as the "independent state legislature" doctrine. Opponents say the clause has never been read that way before. The state lawmakers said a plain reading of that clause makes clear that state legislatures have power to set election rules without interference from state courts. North Carolina relied on a clause in the Constitution that delegates responsibility for federal elections to the "legislature" of each state.The decision Tuesday drew praise from voting rights groups and some prominent Democrats, including former President Barack Obama, who called it a "resounding rejection of the far-right theory that has been peddled by election deniers and extremists seeking to undermine our democracy." What's the 'independent state legislature' theory? What did the court rule? Democrats, on the other hand, had framed those same decisions as protecting voters from disenfranchisement. ![]() Republicans felt that, in some of those cases, courts had overstepped their authority. The appeal took on added significance because of the 2020 election, during which several courts ruled on absentee ballot procedures amid lockdowns in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. "Since early in our nation's history, courts have recognized their duty to evaluate the constitutionality of legislative acts," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote. WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on Tuesday shot down a conservative theory that could have given state lawmakers extraordinary power to set election rules in their states with little oversight from courts, balking at an idea that voting rights groups worried could further erode trust in the nation's elections. ![]()
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