Supreme Court Rules 'No' On GOP, Trump-Backed Gerrymandering Theory With 6-3 Vote

State courts "do not have free rein."

That's according to Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. who struck down a Conservative-backed legal theory that would have transformed how federal elections are conducted.

The theory would have allowed state legislatures unchecked power to draft new rules on federal elections and partisan gerrymandering.

The Constitution, Roberts wrote, “does not exempt state legislatures from the ordinary constraints imposed by state law.”

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The Supreme Court vote was 6-3 in the case of Moore v. Harper, with conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch dissenting. For the full document, authored by Roberts, click here.

What's At Stake: The decision makes it more difficult for a dominant political party to gerrymander district voting maps to maintain control of the seats.

For example, recall how former President Donald Trump wanted Republican state lawmakers to challenge the law and appoint electors in his favor, instead of President Joe Biden who won the 2020 election. Trump and his supporters were unsuccessful.

Yet, many worried whether the Supreme Court would support the claim that state legislatures had “independent” authority over elections. If it did, GOP lawmakers might select a slate of Republican electors even if the Democratic candidate won in a close race.
Such was the case in North Carolina with the Moore v. Harper lawsuit. Republican state legislators manipulated a voting map that would have given the GOP a significant advantage in 10 of the state’s 14 districts for electing U.S. representatives.

Today, Roberts — along with Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, Bret Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett and Ketanji Brown Jackson — rejected those efforts.

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