US SC rejects bid to give lawmakers unchecked power over polls; White House praises ruling

The United States Supreme Court on Tuesday (June 27) rejected the bid to give lawmakers unchecked power over elections. The bid, which was favoured by many conservatives, could hand sweeping power to state legislatures to establish rules for presidential and congressional elections and draft electoral maps giving huge advantages to the political party already in control.

According to a report by the news agency Reuters, the justices ruled against Republican state legislators in a case arising from a legal fight over their map of North Carolina's 14 US House of Representative districts. Last year, North Carolina's top court had blocked the map as unlawfully biased against Democratic voters.

On Tuesday, the Republican legislators asked the Supreme Court justices to embrace the independent state legislature doctrine that would remove any role of state courts and state constitutions in regulating federal elections.

The doctrine

The independent state legislature doctrine is based in part on the US Constitution's statement that the time, place and manner of federal elections shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof.

"The Elections Clause does not insulate state legislatures from the ordinary exercise of state judicial review," US Chief Justice Roberts wrote of that constitutional provision. Reuters reported.

The criticism of doctrine

Critics of the independent state legislature doctrine, including legal scholars and democrats, called it a threat to American democratic norms. The critics have said that the doctrine's application would let legislatures easily pass further voting restrictions or pursue extreme partisan gerrymandering- which is a practice of manipulating electoral district boundaries to marginalize certain voters and increase the influence of others.

White House welcomes Supreme Court ruling

The White House on Tuesday welcomed the Supreme Court ruling by saying the bid would have let politicians undermine the will of the people.

"As you know, this has been an enormous priority for the president and the vice president since the day that they entered office, to strengthen and shore up voting rights in this country. And so we're pleased that the Supreme Court rejected the extreme legal theory presented in this case, which would have interfered with state governments, which would have opened the door for politicians to undermine the will of the people, and would have threatened the freedom of all Americans to have their voices heard at the ballot box," White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Olivia Dalton said.

(With inputs from agencies)

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