How a Redistricting Case Could Alter American Democracy

This spring, in the case of Moore v. Harper, the Supreme Court will decide whether and when state judges can step in to draw congressional district maps. The case takes up the so-called “independent state legislature” theory. At issue is nothing less than the traditional model of American redistricting, in which the people’s representatives, not partisan activists and courts, craft district maps.Guest Andrew Taylor joins us to discuss ISL theory as a “final, even desperate, salvo” to save legislative redistricting.Andrew Taylor is professor of political science at North Carolina State University, and he was an expert witness for the legislative defendants in NC League of Conservation Voters v. Hall and in Harper v. Hall. The issues in those state redistricting disputes are now before the U.S. Supreme Court in the case Moore v. Harper.This podcast discusses themes from Andrew’s essay in the Winter 2023 issue of National Affairs, “The Future of Redistricting.”