Moore v. Harper Decision from the U.S. Supreme Court Upholds Election Fairness

Vote.org, the largest 501(c)(3) nonprofit, nonpartisan voting registration and get-out-the-vote (GOTV) technology platform in America, released the following statement after the U.S. Supreme Court released its decision in the voting rights and redistricting case Moore v. Harper.

“Today, the Supreme Court upheld a core tenet of our democracy by rejecting the radical 'independent state legislature' theory. This is a huge victory for voting rights, election fairness and the will of the people,” said Andrea Hailey, CEO of Vote.org. “After the North Carolina legislature drew targeted maps whose sole purpose was to keep the majority party in power, voting rights advocates and activists rightfully called out the politically motivated maps. Now, it is clear that legislatures should not and cannot overreach in redistricting to draw maps that benefit politicians over the will of the people in violation of state constitutions. The decision also clearly says that state legislatures cannot violate state law when they make rules involving federal election administration. This cannot be overstated: this is a big deal for the future of our elections and the health of our democracy.”

Moore v. Harper is a case focused on redistricting in North Carolina following the release of the 2020 Census. The North Carolina Supreme Court previously overturned North Carolina’s legislature-drawn districts, finding that the proposed districts were politically motivated in violation of the North Carolina constitution. The decision to overturn those maps was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The case, at heart, was a referendum on the radical “independent state legislature” theory, which asserted that state legislatures can draw congressional districts without complying with their own state constitutions. The Supreme Court definitively rejected that radical theory.