Conservative, liberal justices unite in rejecting North Carolina GOP election theory

Three liberal and three conservative justices on Tuesday came together to reject a bid that would have given state legislatures broad authority over congressional maps and federal elections. 

Chief Justice John Roberts authored the majority opinion, joined by the court’s three liberal Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, as well as conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh filed a concurring opinion. 

Conservative Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch dissented.

The 6-3 decision rejects the so-called independent state legislature theory. North Carolina GOP lawmakers had appealed a lawsuit over the state’s congressional map and argued that the state’s Supreme Court couldn’t block the lines the lawmakers had drawn. 

Justices on both sides of the ideological spectrum also joined together in a 7-2 decision to vacate a Colorado man’s stalking conviction after he sent hundreds of online messages to musician Coles Whalen, which included messages telling Whalen to “die” and “f— off permanently.”

The majority opinion, authored by Kagan, argued the conviction was made under the wrong legal standards, and that the man’s intent should have been considered — not merely how a reasonable person would have interpreted the statements.

Sotomayor and Gorsuch agreed with vacating the conviction but disagreed in its ruling about true threats more broadly. Thomas and Coney Barrett dissented. 

The nation’s highest court is approaching its summer recess, and is expected to issue still more big decisions in the coming days.