Moore v Harper Will Eradicate Elections

WARNING: If you care about democracy and the perpetuation of free and fair elections, then keep your eye on Moore v Harper within the coming months.

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The highly conservative US Supreme Court has already dismantled a woman’s right over her own reproductive system by ending Roe v Wade. Justice Clarence Thomas let it slip that the court subsequently intends to make consensual sex between 2 gay adults illegal as well as outlaw same-sex marriage. However, the high court’s most contentious act of all could come in October when the justices hear the case of Moore v Harper.

If you’ve never heard of Moore v Harper, then you’d better pay close attention today as it could relegate you to nothing more than a mere peon and strip you of virtually every right you’ve ever thought you owned.

The North Carolina case of Moore v Harper concerns the Republican political strategy of gerrymandering, the manipulation of voting districts for political power, and a little-known theory called the independent state legislature doctrine.

After the 2020 census, GOP lawmakers in North Carolina attempted to redraw congressional maps in order to slant political power in their favor. Democratic voters asserted that the districts were unfairly gerrymandered in favor of Republicans and argued that it was a violation of the state constitution. Earlier this year, the North Carolina Supreme Court blocked the state from using the maps in primary elections and required that the districts be redrawn fairly so that the people were properly represented.

However, Republican state lawmakers made an emergency appeal in February to the US Supreme Court requesting that any attempt to (fairly) redraw the maps be halted. Although their request was denied, Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Neil Gorsuch dissented from the denial and introduced the independent state legislature doctrine as their reason for the GOP gerrymandering to be permitted.

“Today, we answer this question: does our state constitution recognize that the people of this state have the power to choose those who govern us, by giving each of us an equally powerful voice through our vote? Or does our constitution give to members of the General Assembly, as they argue here, unlimited power to draw electoral maps that keep themselves and our members of Congress in office as long as they want, regardless of the will of the people, by making some votes more powerful than others?”

– Justice Robin Hudson, North Carolina Supreme Court

So, what exactly is the independent state legislature doctrine, you ask?

“The independent state legislature doctrine says that, under the Elections and the Electors Clauses of the Constitution, state legislatures possess plenary and exclusive power over the conduct of federal presidential elections and the selection of state presidential electors,” explained former US Court of Appeals Judge J. Michael Luttig, a giant in conservative legal circles. “Not even a state supreme court, let alone other state elections officials, can alter the legislatively written election rules or interfere with the appointment of state electors by the legislatures, under this theory.”

Or, to put it in simpler terms, the US Supreme Court could hear the case of Moore v Harper in October, apply the obscure rule of the independent state legislature doctrine to the case, then sit back and watch North Carolina redraw congressional maps not based on fair representation of its citizens, but rather what’s in the best interest of the Republican Party.

After becoming law in North Carolina, every state in the union would then have legal precedent to establish it as law within their own state and fair districts with fair representation would then become an immediate relic of the past. 

From there, the GOP would effectively be given the legal right to steal every local, state, and federal election in their own favor — giving themselves control of the state legislature, the US House of Representatives, the US Senate, and yes, even The White House. Then, Republicans would hold exclusive power to bulldoze over democracy and create any law they wanted without a single roadblock in their way.

If the GOP wanted to throw away votes from certain states and count votes from other states (as Donald Trump already attempted to do in 2020), they could then legally do it. If they wanted to make gay sexual relationships illegal or outlaw same-sex marriage or otherwise legislate morality within our bedrooms, they could then legally do it. If they wanted the vice-president of the United States to throw away the will of the people and certify whomever he/she wanted as the next President of the United States (as Trump commanded Mike Pence to do in 2021), they could then legally do it.

Or, in other words, all of the rights you’ve grown accustomed to owning as an American citizen could be erased and replaced with whatever the all-powerful Republican Party decided was best for you. They’d have the numbers to make up any laws they wanted and nobody could stop them.

According to POLITICO: “With 30 state legislatures currently in Republican hands, GOP state legislative leaders would be strongly positioned to skew maps in their party’s favor and to make changes Republicans have sought to voting procedures.”

HuffPost also weighed in, saying: “Siding with the North Carolina Republicans could effectively give all electoral authority to state legislatures, including in the approval of the winner of the state’s Electoral College electors.”

Judge Luttig warned in an op-ed piece that his fellow Republicans were planning to dismantle democracy and steal upcoming elections. Now, his warning could come true as early as this October — just in time for the 2022 midterm elections.

Keep your eyes open, people!

OK WASSUP! discusses the Top News Today:
Moore v Harper and GOP election scheme.