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Neal Katyal, an attorney for Common Cause, a voting rights group that was among the challengers to the map, disagreed: "The court should, if at all possible, decide this question now, rather than on an emergency basis during the 2024 election cycle."

But Common Cause, a group that opposes the GOP lawmakers, disagreed with the position taken by its own side and urged the justices to decide the case. Neal Katyal, a lawyer for the group, stressed that the court should use the North Carolina case to decide the Independent State Legislature doctrine issue rather than wait until it arises again on an emergency basis “during the 2024 election cycle.”

This is the first time in 30 years that the court has decided to rehear two cases, said Bob Phillips, executive director of Common Cause North Carolina. "I do think that North Carolina, unfortunately, is often looked upon as a model for bad democracy and can be the playbook for other states," Phillips said. "And we're almost like the laboratory for some of this, that we think is extremely harmful."

"Oral arguments were heard in December, and a decision is expected by June, and if the Supreme Court rules in favor of these lawless North Carolina lawmakers, it would have a near-immediate impact on Marylanders. This case could pave the way for dramatic and discriminatory cuts to our popular early voting and mail-in voting options, widespread voter roll purges, discriminatory barriers to voting access, baseless challenges to fair election results, fewer protections against voter intimidation and widespread gerrymandering." - Joanne Antoine, Executive Director of Common Cause Maryland

10 years ago, Shelby County v Holder ended important parts of the Voting Rights act. Kathay Feng of Common Cause joins Thom to discuss the dramatic changes after a decade without voting rights.

If a liberal flips the court’s open seat, progressive groups will attempt to relitigate the issue and urge the new majority to strike down the current map, Jay Heck, the executive director of Common Cause in Wisconsin, told CNN. Heck and other voter advocates objected to the court’s conservative majority deciding to use maps drawn by Republicans in 2011 as the foundation for the maps it considered following the 2020 census.