The 6-3 majority dismissed the “independent state legislature” theory, which would have given state lawmakers nearly unchecked power over federal elections.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a legal theory that would have radically reshaped how federal elections are conducted by giving state legislatures largely unchecked power to set all sorts of rules for federal elections and to draw congressional maps warped by partisan gerrymandering.
The vote was 6 to 3, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. writing the majority opinion. …
Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch dissented.
This coalition, headed by Chief Justice Roberts, is the new normal in at least election jurisprudence. Earlier this term Roberts surprisingly joined the Court’s normals in rejecting an Alabama congressional map that effectively limited the state’s Blacks to one congressional district. Roberts styles himself the custodian of the Court’s public reputation and standing. He is stung by the disfavor into which the Court has fallen with unprecedented numbers of Americans. The Dobbs abortion decision last summer, and its leak, effected a paradigm shift in the Chief Justice’s thinking, and hence, on the Court’s opinions.
