What’s Happening:

The state of North Carolina drafted a new congressional map for the 2022 midterms. But because the legislature was Republican-controlled, Democrats threw a hissy fit. They challenged the new map, taking to the Democrat-majority State Supreme Court.

What do ya know? The court sided with Democrats.

Republicans took the case to the highest court in the land. They argued that state courts don’t have the power to meddle in lawmakers’ decisions regarding elections. How the court ruled would have ramifications for years to come. And in a split 6-3 decision, they sided with the state courts.

From Fox News:

The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that state judges do have the power to override state legislatures when it comes to how federal elections are carried out.

In a 6-3 opinion authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, the high court ruled that the Elections Clause of Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution “does not insulate state legislatures from the ordinary exercise of state judicial review.”

The Supreme Court decided that state judges do have the power to meddle in lawmakers’ decisions on elections. The court was split in this decision. The three liberal justices sided with Chief Justice Roberts and Trump-appointed Amy Coney Barrett.

Dissenting were the three other conservative members of the court, Thomas, Gorsuch, and Alito.

While this case might affect how congressional maps are drawn up, it could end up being a blessing in disguise for Republicans. In 2020, election officials in liberal states made last-minute changes to election rules.

They opened the doors to allow late-arriving mail-in ballots to be counted and other radical changes to “accommodate” COVID. Big surprise, those changes helped Biden win states Trump had previously won in 2016 (and had won on Election Night, 2020).

This ruling could prevent future changes like that if Republicans challenge these decisions in state courts. Or, it could give Democrats a chance at undermining election integrity laws that have been passed in numerous Republican states.

The real surprise is that two “conservative” justices so eagerly sided with the liberal wing, when Republicans stood to lose so much. I guess we’ll have to wait and see if this decision truly hurts our democracy.

Key Takeaways:

• The Supreme Court ruled that state judges can override state lawmakers’ election decisions.
• This comes after a liberal court overruled Republicans’ congressional map in North Carolina.
• In 2020, Democrats in numerous states made last-minute changes that altered the election’s outcome.

Source: Fox News