Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to block new congressional maps in North Carolina and Pennsylvania from going into effect. Both states’ maps had been redrawn by state courts, overriding maps that had been enacted by the states’ Republican legislatures. This means that the 2022 congressional elections in both states will proceed using the court-drawn maps. Despite the fact that the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene, four of the justices indicated they’re ready to address the doctrine at the heart of the cases: the independent state legislature theory.
To unpack all that’s at stake—and explain what that theory is and what effect, if implemented, it could have on the power of state courts to review actions by state legislatures in regulating elections—Jeffrey Rosen moderates a conversation with two constitutional law experts: Vikram Amar, dean and Iwan Foundation Professor of Law at Illinois College of Law and co-author of Constitutional Law: Cases and Materials; and Evan Bernick, assistant professor at the Northern Illinois University College of Law and co-author of The Original Meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment: Its Letter and Spirit.
FULL PODCAST
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This episode was produced by Melody Rowell and engineered by Dave Stotz and Greg Scheckler. Research was provided by Kevin Closs, Ruben Aguirre, Sam Desai, and Lana Ulrich.
Participants
Vikram Amar is dean and Iwan Foundation Professor of Law at Illinois College of Law. He is a co-author (along with Akhil Reed Amar and Steven Calabresi) of the upcoming edition of the six-volume Treatise on Constitutional Law. He writes a biweekly column on constitutional matters for Justia.com and a monthly column on legal education for abovethelaw.com.
Evan Bernick is a law professor at Northern Illinois University who teaches courses in constitutional law, criminal law, criminal procedure, administrative law, and legislation. From 2020 to 2021 and 2017 to 2019, Professor Bernick was a visiting professor at the Georgetown University Law Center and the executive director of the Georgetown Center for the Constitution. His book, The Original Meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment: Its Letter and Spirit, co-authored with Randy E. Barnett, came out last year.
Jeffrey Rosen is the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization devoted to educating the public about the U.S. Constitution. Rosen is also professor of law at The George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic.
Additional Resources
- Justice Alito’s dissent in Moore v. Harper
- Vikram Amar’s column for Justia.com: “Concluding Thoughts on the Invocation of the Independent-State-Legislature (ISL) Theory in the North Carolina Emergency Relief Application at the Supreme Court: Part Six in a Series”
- Vikram Amar’s column for Justia.com: “The North Carolina Partisan Gerrymander Case and the Ahistorical ‘Independent State Legislature’ (ISL) Theory: Part One in a Series”
- The Original Meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment: Its Letter and Spirit, by Randy E. Barnett and Evan D. Bernick
TRANSCRIPT
This transcript may not be in its final form, accuracy may vary, and it may be updated or revised in the future.
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