The “independent state legislature theory” asks that SCOTUS reverse legal precedents that allow courts to review if state lawmakers broke the law when creating election policies. Photo: U.S. Supreme Court building by Al Drago || Getty Images
BY: JEROD MACDONALD-EVOY|| Arizona Mirror
Arizona AG Mark Brnovich is backing the North Carolina legislature’s “independent state legislature” theory at the U.S. Supreme Court.
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich joined 12 other Republican attorneys general backing North Carolina’s GOP-led legislature in a U.S. Supreme Court case that could drastically alter how federal elections are conducted, handing more power to state legislatures and blocking state courts from intervening.
The case, Moore v. Harper, will be heard by SCOTUS later this year and involves a fringe legal theory called the “independent state legislature theory.” Lawmakers in North Carolina used this theory in an attempt to dodge a state court ruling that struck down gerrymandered voting maps in a lawsuit filed by Common Cause North Carolina.
The “independent state legislature theory” asks that SCOTUS reverse legal precedents that allow courts to review if state lawmakers broke the law when creating election policies. If that happens, state courts could be disallowed from reviewing voting maps or deciding if voting hours should be extended.
Brnovich and others argue in their brief that “prescribing the times, places, and manner of federal elections is fundamentally a legislative role” set forth in the U.S. Constitution and that the courts have no role in elections — even overseeing the laws governing them.
