News Clips

“Either way, we’re screwed,” warned Jay Heck, the executive director of the good-government group Common Cause’s Wisconsin chapter.

Adding partisan labels “encourages the candidates and voters to think about these justices as partisan actors,” said Common Cause Ohio’s Catherine Turcer. “And that's a real problem when it comes to wanting an independent, impartial judiciary.”

“We beat back the most serious legal threat our democracy has ever faced today,” said Kathay Feng of Common Cause, whose lawsuit challenging congressional districts drawn by North Carolina’s Republican-controlled legislature triggered the case.

“As we argued to the Supreme Court, the independent state legislature theory was contrary to precedent and would have called into question hundreds of state constitutional provisions and decisions,” said former Acting US Solicitor General Neal Katyal, who represented Common Cause, one of the voting rights groups that challenged the Republican-drawn map. “Today’s ruling affirms the crucial role state courts play in overseeing federal elections.”

“This is a historic victory for the people of North Carolina and for American democracy. Today, the US supreme court made clear that state courts and state constitutions should serve as a critical check against abuses of power by legislators. Now, we must ensure our state courts fulfill their duty to protect our freedoms against attacks by extremist politicians,” Bob Phillips, the executive director of Common Cause North Carolina, one of the challengers in the suit, said in a statement.

In the federal case, Common Cause vice president Kathay Feng said her group’s lawsuit also is supported by the Alabama decision, despite focusing on a different section of law. “The Alabama ruling sent a very clear message that the court was going to look closely at the history of discrimination,” Feng said. “… Florida has a history of discriminating against black voters. And the impact was directly to take away the opportunity to vote from Black voters in the panhandle of Florida.”