On June 22, the U.S. Supreme Court issued four opinions, but did not release the election law case, Moore v Harper. This is the North Carolina case on whether the U.S. Constitution prohibits state courts from striking down state election laws that affect federal elections. The case began when the North Carolina Supreme Court ruled that the state constitution’s “free and equal” language prohibits partisan gerrymandering. The state then asked the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that the North Carolina State Supreme Court cannot do that.
Later the membership of the North Carolina Supreme Court shifted, and that Court reconsidered its original decision and reversed it. This might mean that the U.S. Supreme Court will not issue a definitive opinion on the federal constitutional issue, but we won’t know until Moore v Harper is released.
In the past, State Supreme Courts have sometimes invalidated restrictive ballot access laws that affected federal elections. Some of these decisions are more than 125 years old. For instance, in 1895 the Illinois Supreme Court struck down a law banning write-in voting in Sanner v Patton, 40 NE 290. It would be strange if, in 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court would rule that the Illinois Supreme Court had no right to do that relative to federal elections.
