A local state lawmaker says a case involving state legislatures and their powers over congressional redistricting never should have gotten as far as the U.S. Supreme Court. Republican legislators in North Carolina involved with Moore v. Harper are questioning whether a state Supreme Court has the right to throw out congressional redistricting maps. A similar situation arose in New York earlier this year. The so-called “independent state legislature theory” supports the idea that the U.S. Constitution gives broad power to state legislatures to oversee elections, regardless of the state constitution, and state courts can’t stop them. Rockland State Senator Elijah Reichlin-Melnick says it could be interpreted to allow state legislators to pick winners of elections…
Senator Reichlin-Melnick hopes the Supreme Court doesn’t take the case seriously enough to rule in favor of it. The high court may consider this case this term, which began earlier this month.