Power To The People: SCOTUS Likely To Hear Case Barring Democrat Judges From Overturning GOP Legislators

The Supreme Court may very well take up a case that would prevent Democrat judges from invalidating Republican state legislators who dominate state houses from redrawing congressional districts.

It takes four justices of the Supreme Court to agree for a case to be heard by the entire Court; Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh have said they are willing to hear the case.

“Activist judges and allied plaintiffs have proved time and time again that they believe state courts have the ultimate say over congressional maps, no matter what the U.S. Constitution says,” North Carolina Senate leader Phil Berger (R) asserted.

The case at issue involves an appeal filed by North Carolina Republicans after a state court ruled that the congressional district boundaries drawn by the General Assembly had violated state constitution provisions. The idea of restricting judges from blocking their states’ legislatures has drawn the interest of four of the SCOTUS justices.

“In an order entered on February 4, the North Carolina Supreme Court invalidated the North Carolina General Assembly’s congressional maps and remanded to state trial court for remedial proceedings,” the plaintiffs state.

“Rather than seek immediate review in this Court, Applicants engaged in a good-faith effort to craft a congressional map that would be valid under the state Supreme Court’s order,” they continue. “Yet in an order entered on February 23, the North Carolina trial court rejected that map and instead mandated the use of a new map that had been created by a group of Special Masters and their team of assistants—who, to make matters worse, designed their own, judicially-crafted map after engaging in ex parte communications with experts for the plaintiffs. Applicants immediately sought a stay from the North Carolina Supreme Court, but that stay was promptly denied.”

“If a redistricting process more violative of the U.S. Constitution exists, it is hard to imagine it,” they charge. “This Court should intervene to protect the Constitution’s allocation of power over this matter of fundamental importance to our democratic system of government.”

Notably, GOP candidates would be “likely victors in 10 of the state’s 14 congressional districts,” AP reported, adding, “The new map that eventually emerged and is being used this year gives Democrats a good chance to win six seats, and possibly a seventh in a new toss-up district.”

“The issue has arisen repeatedly in cases from North Carolina and Pennsylvania, where Democratic majorities on the states’ highest courts have invoked voting protections in their state constitutions to frustrate the plans of Republican-dominated legislatures,” AP noted.

“The issue is almost certain to keep arising until the Court definitively resolves it,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in March.