Supreme Court to hear case on state authority over elections

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear a case that could dramatically change the way elections for Congress and the presidency are conducted, handing more power to state legislatures and blocking state courts from reviewing challenges to the procedures and results.

The justices will consider whether state courts, finding violations of their state constitutions, can order changes to federal elections and the once-a-decade redrawing of congressional districts.

The case probably will be argued in the fall.

“This case could profoundly alter the balance of power in states and prevent state courts and agencies from providing protections for people’s right to vote,” said Rick Hasen, a law professor at the University of California, Irvine.

“There’s a wide range of ways the court could rule on this. Taken to its extreme, it would be a radical reworking of our system of running elections.”

In the most extreme example, attorneys said, if the court rules no entity besides state legislatures can set rules regarding federal elections, that could stop a governor from vetoing election bills, or a state court from blocking rules that set up different voting hours in urban and rural precincts.

The case, an appeal from North Carolina Republicans, challenges a state court ruling throwing out the congressional districts drawn by the state’s General Assembly that made GOP candidates likely victors in 10 of the state’s 14 congressional districts.

The Supreme Court has never invoked what is known as the independent state legislature doctrine, but four of the court’s conservative justices have expressed interest in taking on the subject.

One of them, Justice Clarence Thomas, was among three justices who advanced it in the Bush v. Gore case that settled the 2000 presidential election.

It only takes four of the nine justices to agree to hear a case.

A majority of five is needed for an eventual decision.