Jason Snead, Executive Director of Honest Elections Project:
“Today’s argument shows a number of justices are skeptical of respondents’ claims. The argument also reiterated that the plain text of the Constitution gives state legislatures the power to write the laws that govern federal elections. The Constitution ought to be honored, and state courts should not seize the power to act as super-legislatures. Allowing the people’s elected lawmakers to make law is not a threat to democracy, it is democracy. The argument also showed that a muscular ruling in favor of North Carolina lawmakers would not make legislatures unchecked and all powerful. A ruling in favor of respondents, however, risks exactly that: courts seizing the power to write and rewrite election laws, with few, if any, checks.
The U.S. Supreme Court has a chance to set the record straight with a clear ruling that affirms the Constitution and limits the ability of partisan lawyers like Marc Elias to continue their campaign to use rogue courts to skew election rules for partisan gain. To do otherwise would be to leave the door wide open to unprecedented partisan litigation to change election rules on the eve of a presidential election. A clear ruling now could avoid that chaos, and that would be a win for voters and for the rule of law.”
