Thomas, Alito and Gorsuch dissenting as The Supreme Court rejects the independent state legislature theory, ruling that state courts have the power to review election laws and maps enacted by state legislatures

Thomas, Alito and Gorsuch dissenting as The Supreme Court rejects the independent state legislature theory, ruling that state courts have the power to review election laws and maps enacted by state legislatures.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled in a case that threatened to upend state election laws nationwide.

It involved who gets to decide when, where and how Americans vote – and whether state courts can provide a check on the process.

A 6-3 decision by Chief Justice John Roberts rejects a broad interpretation of the so-called “independent state legislature” theory.

The court ruled against Republican lawmakers in a dispute over a North Carolina congressional map. State legislatures “remain subject to the ordinary exercise of state judicial review,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court, and legislatures are constrained by both state and federal constitutions, which both give power to the judicial system.

Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch dissented, while conservative Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh joined Roberts and the court’s liberal justices in the decision.

Roberts was joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.

In Moore v. Harper, the justices were asked to reinstate the state legislature’s gerrymandered voting map after the North Carolina Supreme Court struck it down for violating the state constitution. The North Carolina Supreme Court, which initially struck down the lawmaker-drawn maps and led lawmakers to go to the Supreme Court, reversed its ruling in April after Republicans nabbed a majority on the court, upholding the lawmaker-drawn maps after the Supreme Court had already heard oral arguments in the case.

The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that it still had power to hear the case after the North Carolina Supreme Court ruling, and struck down the state legislature theory, ruling “the Elections Clause does not vest exclusive and independent authority in state legislatures to set the rules regarding federal elections.”