159 – INDEPENDENT STATE LEGISLATURE THEORY … MY ASS ! (An Editorial)

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the suit brought by the North Carolina Republican Legislature that would have allowed them to ignore the ruling of the North Carolina Supreme Court that said that the redistricting passed by their Republican Legislature was Unconstitutional.

Just to be absolutely clear, let me provide an example of what North Carolina could have been allowed to do and, if the ruling had gone in their favor, all other state legislatures would have been allowed to do as well.

• The North Carolina Republican state legislature passes a bill related to elections law, such as ridiculously Gerrymandered districts that are drawn such that no minority representatives would be able to be elected despite there being a large percentage of minority voters in a given state, such as the 33% minority population currently in Louisiana.

• The North Carolina Supreme Court says, “Uhh guys, that absolutely violates the North Carolina State Constitution which applies to election laws.  Your law is therefore declared Unconstitutional.”

• The North Carolina Republican state legislature then just says, “Tough shit.  We wrote the law and we have the absolute, final authority over our state election laws.  So North Carolina Supreme Court, go take a flying leap.”

Yeah, it is just THAT simple.

North Carolina filed suit in the case known as Moore v Harper, that asked the U.S. Supreme Court to override the North Carolina Supreme Court and allow them to pass any restrictive type of voting law that they wanted.

Thankfully, the U.S. Supreme Court just voted 6-3 to allow the North Carolina Supreme Court to declare that election law Unconstitutional.

Even ole’ “I Like Beer Boy”, Brett Kavanaugh, voted along with the Liberals to say state legislatures cannot override a decision made by their own state Supreme Court.  Roberts and Amy Barrett voted with the Liberals as well.

If ever there were a case that deserved to have a 9-0 vote, this was it.  But make no mistake, Alito, Thomas and Gorsuch all voted to ALLOW the state legislature to override a decision by their own state Supreme Court.

They are three old guys – two white and another who might as well be – all now exposed as to having close relationships with far Right Conservative mega donors and activists, some of whom (Leonard Leo) directly contributed to them being nominated to the Supreme Court due to the Federalist Society.

Those old guys wanted to let state legislatures pass anything they wanted which could marginalize and/or completely exclude minority participation in voting.

There is NO excuse whatsoever for those three to vote that way.  It is like the Police Commissioner declaring that the Police Union President can override any decision made by the Police Commissioner.  Sound crazy?  That pretty much sums it up.

The ONLY explanation is that those three voted to try and allow Red states to continue to pass restrictive voting laws, and thereby keep themselves in power. 

Constitutional Originalism be damned.