The justices on the Supreme Court appeared split Wednesday over whether to back a fringe theory that would upend election and redistricting law in every state.
The court heard arguments in the case of Moore v. Harper, which involves the independent state legislature theory. It holds that state legislatures were unbound by state constitutions and state courts when enacting law governing federal elections or drawing congressional district maps. This highly controversial theory has never been accepted by the judicial branch and has been deemed “historically implausible” and “antithetical” to the Constitution by historians of the founding era and judicial scholars, conservative and liberal alike.
