NEW! You may have heard of a radical and anti-democratic new legal theory being pushed by conservative legal activists that could insulate state legislatures from virtually any checks against abuses in their regulation of federal elections. #electionsubversion🧵
The innocuously-named "independent state legislature" theory is deeply dangerous: If adopted by #SCOTUS, it would upend voting rights, redistricting reforms, & election administration. In its extreme form, it could even enable state legislatures to overturn federal elections.
Indeed, prominent conservative jurist #MichaelLuttig called the "independent state legislature" theory the "cornerstone of the plan" to overturn the #2020election and warned of ongoing danger for 2024. cnn.com/2022/04/27/opi…
Alarmingly, 4 justices signaled support for this theory in recent "shadow docket" opinions. And now there is a petition pending before #SCOTUS asking the Court to use this theory to nullify a ruling by the NC S Ct against the state's gerrymandered maps brennancenter.org/our-work/analy…
The "independent state legislature" theory is not only dangerous; it is also wrong--as a matter of history, text, practice, and policy. A wave of recent scholarship debunks it from every conceivable angle. We collect and describe that scholarship here: brennancenter.org/our-work/resea…
There are a lot of reasons to be worried about the future of #freeandfairelections in America. This is a big one. But the #IndependentStateLegislature theory can still be stopped. It is so wrong and so overwhelmingly damaging that it will be very hard for Justices to justify it.
Our new guide features important recent scholarship by @Prof_Amar @JoshuaADouglas @markskrass @JasonMarisam @MiriamSeifter @chsaplaw @emilyrongzhang @swerenbecker @mawaldman on the myriad problems w/the ISL theory. We will continue to update it here. brennancenter.org/our-work/resea…
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