Last week, the North Carolina Supreme Court agreed to re-hear a case that found the state’s redistricting maps unconstitutional under the state’s constitution. The outcome of this decision could affect another case already before the U.S. Supreme Court, Moore v. Harper—a challenge to a decision striking down North Carolina’s redistricting that involves the “independent state legislature” doctrine. Why did the North Carolina Supreme Court strike down the maps in the first place, and why is it revisiting that decision now? Will the U.S. Supreme Court still decide the Moore case and rule on the independent state legislature theory? And what standards should be used to decide whether redistricting maps are politically gerrymandered? To discuss these questions and address the latest developments in these crucial gerrymandering cases, Misha Tseytlin of the law firm Troutman Pepper and Guy-Uriel Charles of Harvard Law School join host Jeffrey Rosen.
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Today’s episode was produced by Lana Ulrich, Bill Pollock, and Sam Desai. It was engineered by Greg Scheckler. Research was provided by Sophia Gardell, Emily Campbell, Liam Kerr, Sam Desai, and Lana Ulrich.
Participants
Misha Tseytlin is a partner at the law firm Troutman Pepper. He argued and won the 2018 partisan gerrymandering case Gill v. Whitford before the Supreme Court, and he filed amicus briefs in Moore v. Harper as well as another major gerrymandering case, Rucho v. Common Cause.
Guy-Uriel Charles is the Charles J. Ogletree Jr. Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, where he also directs the Charles Hamilton Institute for Race and Justice. He was appointed by President Joe Biden to the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States. He also filed an amicus brief in Rucho v. Common Cause.
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
- Moore v. Harper, (oral argument: video via C-SPAN; transcript)
- Amicus Brief by Misha Tsyetlin filed on behalf group of New York Voters, Moore v. Harper
- Amicus Brief by Misha Tsyetlin filed on behalf of members of Congress from the North Carolina delegation, Rucho v. Common Cause
- Amicus Brief by Guy-Uriel Charles and Deepak Gupta on behalf of Mathematicians, Students and Professors, Rucho v. Common Cause
- Gill v. Whitford (2018)
- Rucho v. Common Cause (2019)
Transcript
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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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