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Opinion | North Carolina’s Governor Says a Fringe Claim Before the Supreme Court Would Upend Democracy


Over the past six months, the U.S. Supreme Court has handed down one erroneous verdict after another, stripping Americans of their constitutional right to abortion, cutting gun regulation and industrial emissions. , while at the same time blurring the divide between church and state. The people protested. They organized. And in 2022, they voted.

In Dobbs v. The Jackson Women’s Health Foundation, which decided to have an abortion in June, wrote in a majority that “women are not without voting or political rights.” That’s one thing they got right, and Republicans had a hard time realizing it in the November midterm elections that they expected to win big. Now, however, the very ability to exercise voting rights and political power at the ballot box is hanging in the balance in a case the court is scheduled to hear on Wednesday.

Moore sues Harper is a case from North Carolina that state and national Republicans are using to promote an extreme legal premise known as independent state legislative theory. While the U.S. Constitution assigns the power to govern federal elections to the states, with Congress able to supersede those decisions by states, proponents of this theory argue that the legislatures states are given the exclusive right to administer those elections. This view leaves no room for scrutiny by state courts and puts the ability of governors to veto election-related legislation into question.

The court’s decision on this alarming argument could fundamentally reshape American democracy. Four judges have offer that they are sympathetic to the theory. If the courts uphold the doctrine, it would give state legislatures sole authority over electoral law, redistricting the congressional district, and potentially even the choice of presidential and electoral electors. duly certify the winners of the election.

Indeed, the North Carolina Supreme Court, in a decision this year, talk theory that state courts are prohibited from considering congressional redistricting plans as “contrary to the sovereignty of the states, the authority of the state constitutions, and the independence of the state courts, at the same time will cause unreasonable and dangerous consequences.”

You can look to North Carolina for the potential for serious consequences. In 2010, Republicans took over the state legislature after the midterm elections. Since then, North Carolina has been the starting point for Republican efforts to manipulate elections. As the state attorney general and governor since 2017, I have dealt with Republican legislative leaders as they launched one scheme after another aimed at manipulating the states. elections while making it more difficult for the people they target to vote.

These schemes robbed voters from start to finish in the election: the voter ID requirements were so strict that college IDs from the University of North Carolina weren’t good enough. Do not register on the same day during the early voting period. There are no provisional ballots for voters who go to the wrong precinct. The shorter early voting period eliminated voting on the Sunday before Election Day, the day when African-American churches host popular “poll-out” events.

Fortunately, these measures were stopped in 2016 by the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, which described them as targeting African Americans. “with near surgical precision.”

Republicans in the legislature have also arranged districts in sinister ways. In 2016, state Republicans drew a 10 to 3 Republican congressional redistricting map. They did so, the chairman of the redistricting committee. Republican legislative branch explain“because I don’t believe it’s possible to draw a map with 11 Republicans and two Democrats.”

The people of North Carolina have relied on the courts and my veto as governor to disrupt many of these plans. In 2022, a successful case in state court opposes the congressional map designated 2021 lead to fair countiessplit the state’s 14 counties (the state won one after the 2020 census) so that Democrats and Republicans each win seven seats in the November election. That appears to be the case, with an almost even split between Democratic and Republican votes across the state. Republican efforts to avoid this outcome led to Moore v Harper in the Supreme Court.

Most recently in 2019, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in a majority opinion about partisan claims in Maryland and North Carolina that state courts are the appropriate venue for hearing such cases but that such claims are political matters beyond the jurisdiction of the courts. federal court. Retreating from that position to the state courts would be a shocking setback that would undermine the checks and balances established in state constitutions across the country.

Republican leaders in the North Carolina legislature have shown us how the electoral process can be manipulated for partisan benefit. And that’s what you might see from state legislatures across the country if the courts reverse course in this case.

Our democracy is a fragile ecosystem that requires checks and balances to survive. Giving state legislatures liberal control over federal elections is not only a bad idea but a blatant misunderstanding of the Constitution. Don’t let the voting law battle of the past decade in North Carolina become a glimpse into the future of the nation.

Roy Coopera Democrat who has been governor of North Carolina since 2017. Prior to that, he was elected attorney general for four terms.

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