Our Voting Rights Are at Stake in Upcoming Supreme Court Ruling
This is the case that will decide the “independent state legislature” theory. U.S. Supreme Court will rule on Moore v. Harper by June 2023.
I urge you to read this article:
https://truthout.org/articles/our-voting-rights-are-at-stake-in-upcoming-supreme-court-ruling/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=ae8ecac9-3460-4387-a7dd-f254f36c6139
Some of the efforts to overturn the 2020 election through state legislative efforts might become federal law if the Supreme Court agrees with the right-wing extremists that are promoting a bizarre theory. See this: https://www.alternet.org/2022/09/supreme-court-election-changes/?utm_source=123456&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=11459&recip_id=22838&list_id=2
For half a century, Common Cause (www.commoncause.org) has worked to protect honest government and fair elections from the powerful forces that want to abuse them. Recently they wrote this (with my editing for length) about the “independent state legislature” theory that the Supreme Court will soon rule upon: “Common Cause is fighting against … the “independent state legislature” theory, [which a Common Cause expert calls] the total abolition of checks and balances in how our federal elections are run. In just a few months, these ideologues will argue that the Court should grant state legislatures near-absolute power over federal elections – even if their actions violate state constitutions and undermine checks and balances, the role of state courts, and basic common sense. Locking in deliberately-rigged voting maps. Bringing back Jim Crow voting laws. Rolling back popular pro-voter reforms like vote-by-mail. All of this is on the table if the Court accepts this manipulative power grab.“
On September 12, 2022, Judd Legum at Popular Information <www.popularinformation@substack.com> wrote about the “independent state legislature” theory. Some right-wing extremist billionaires have been funding a movement to make this right-wing extremist theory go mainstream — and all the way to the Supreme Court. Legum wrote that it is “an effort to give state legislatures unfettered authority over federal elections. It is a fringe legal argument advanced by Donald Trump’s lawyers in their effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election. If adopted by the federal courts, it could throw 2024 and future elections into chaos. But it is being taken very seriously by Leo and several of his allies on the Supreme Court.” He wrote that the Supreme Court has already prevented federal courts from interfering with extremely biased Republican gerrymandering and has gutted the 1965 law that protected racial minorities from racially biased obstacles to voting. Now the “independent state legislature” theory will allow state legislatures to overrule the will of voters in national presidential elections. One paragraph in his September 12, 2022, article says it is “an effort to give state legislatures unfettered authority over federal elections. It is a fringe legal argument advanced by Donald Trump’s lawyers in their effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election. If adopted by the federal courts, it could throw 2024 and future elections into chaos.” His article says some of the Supreme Court’s most extreme members seem to support it.
His article also says:
The independent state legislature theory is based on a hyper-literal interpretation of the Elections Clause of the Constitution:
The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations.
Advocates of the independent state legislature theory argue that this means that, apart from Congress, the state legislature has absolute power over the administration of elections. This power, according to the theory, cannot be constrained by state constitutions or state courts.
The most important thing to know about the independent state legislature theory is that it makes no sense. State legislatures do not exist independently. They are created and constrained by state constitutions. And state courts interpret state constitutions.
…
The independent state legislature theory has been rejected by the Supreme Court for more than 100 years and as recently as 2019.
The independent state legislature theory was promoted by Trump’s lawyers after the 2020 election to argue that state legislatures could simply ignore the election results and appoint electors pledged to Trump. Such actions, according to the independent state legislature theory, would be unreviewable by state courts even if they directly violated state constitutions.
The paragraphs above are all I’m quoting from Judd Legum’s article. Other people have written about it too. I urge people to understand the danger. While 5 of the 9 Supreme Court Justices are needed for a majority decision, only 4 are needed to make the Court hear the case, and just a few months ago 4 did, so the Court is actively considering this. If they had decided this before the 2020 election, Trump might currently be serving his second term.
Our Voting Rights Are at Stake in Upcoming Supreme Court Ruling
This is the case that will decide the “independent state legislature” theory. U.S. Supreme Court will rule on Moore v. Harper by June 2023.
I urge you to read this article:
