The Atomic Bomb of Election Subversion, Part 2

Part two of Moore v. Harper, the case that could wipe out American democracy for good. Will the Supreme Court let it?

Just kidding. Of course it will.

Last week in part one of this essay, we examined Moore v. Harper, the North Carolina case that the Supreme Court will hear next term, which — among other things — could give state legislatures unchecked power to deliver presidential elections to the candidates of their choice, irrespective of the popular vote.

Given that 30 of the 50 state legislatures are controlled by the GOP, the Court’s upcoming ruling could be the coup de grâce in the ongoing Republican campaign to install itself in power permanently. Thanks to extreme gerrymandering that gives the Republican Party an all-but unbreakable hold on those bodies, that 30 state majority is unlikely to change, meaning that this case might serve as a fast-burning, fuel-on-the-fire accelerant toward the establishment of lasting, autocratic, one-party right wing rule in the US going forward.

Harper — sometimes called Moore; the hive mind can’t decide — hinges on the so-called “independent state legislature theory” (ISLT), a dubious legal concept concocted essentially for this purpose. (I refer you to the previous installment of this blog for the hideous particulars.) It is a theory that Vikram…