The Supreme Court rejected the independent state legislature theory in a bombshell decision Tuesday, turning back a right-wing attempt to vest the sole power in administering federal elections with state legislatures.
The Supreme Court rejected the independent state legislature theory in a bombshell decision Tuesday, turning back a right-wing attempt to vest the sole power in administering federal elections with state legislatures.
I could be wrong, but I don’t think the decision would have extended to the actual voting rights. At least directly.
Like they wouldn’t be able to make a law saying that black people can’t vote; after all, it’s only “time, places and manner”, which in no way includes who. But they could make it much, much harder for specific groups of people to vote.
The nightmare scenario was that a highly gerrymandered state legislature could simply ignore the voice of its voters and direct its electors in the Electoral College to vote for a Republican regardless. It is a plausible textualist reading of the Constitution, though obviously very counter to actual practice.