The Supreme Court Case That’s All About Donald Trump
In just a few days, on December 7, the Supreme Court will consider a case that could have dire implications for American democracy, Moore v. Harper.
Moore concerns the “independent state legislature” theory: the idea that the Constitution grants state legislatures some level of special authority in administering federal elections that may not be constrained by state courts or perhaps even state constitutions. The idea is, to put it mildly, contested. The conservative jurist J. Michael Luttig, who recently signed on as co-counsel for litigants opposing the independent state legislature theory in Moore, has argued in The Atlantic that Moore represents “the most important case for American democracy in the almost two and a half centuries since America’s founding” and cautioned that the theory is a key part of “the Republican blueprint to steal the 2024 election.” Former Attorney General Eric Holder warned that, depending on how the Court rules, Moore could pose “an existential threat to our democracy.”
[J. Michael Luttig: There is absolutely nothing to support the ‘independent state legislature’ theory]
Over the past several months, both the litigants and outside parties—known as amici curiae, or “friends of the court”—have filed a mountain of hashing out these issues. These amicus briefs preview how much disruption the independent state legislature theory could really create. But more than that, they reveal may not be about Trump, but it is of his making.
