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Scenes from inside the Supreme Court during the big NC elections law case

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We’ve got a tag-team newsletter for you this week, all about the SCOTUS case that dominated not just local media but the national media, too: Moore v. Harper, a.k.a. the “independent state legislature” case.

Our story, in case you missed it, is: “Supreme Court hears NC case on elections, with big implications for 2024 and beyond”

Happy Friday! It’s Danielle Battaglia, here in D.C., taking over the newsletter again, along with Will Doran. I sat inside the courtroom for Wednesday’s oral arguments, while Will mercifully anchored the story with the remote audio.

So what is it like inside the Supreme Court?

Picture Old Testament passages about ancient temples.

Everything is marble.

Forty-four-foot ceilings.

An 82-by-91 feet courtroom.

Twenty-four columns line the room. Red velvet curtains block the view outside the courtroom. Gold gates close off inaccessible portions of the room.

Carvings of important figures in judicial history line the marble wall just below the ceiling.

Water, watches, coats and bathroom breaks are not allowed. At least if you’re a member of the media.

I’m not sure dignitaries like Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota or North Carolina’s Reps. Virginia Foxx and Deborah Ross had the same rules.

And I definitely saw North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore get out of his seat and leave the courtroom for a brief time while the final lawyer made arguments. Had I done that I was warned I would not be allowed back in.

Attorney General Josh Stein also cut out early to meet with reporters outside the building.

Stein, a Democrat, told me he believed the respondents and the U.S. solicitor general had a more persuasive argument but that he would not opine on what he thinks the outcome might be.

“It is without any historical precedent that a state legislature can operate as a legislature with no checks or balances for their state Supreme Court over interpreting the state Constitution,” Stein said. “Understand, the legislature does not exist but because the constitution creates them, and so once they exist, they are without any accountability to the governing documents, that is, the word of the people; it defies comprehension.”

The question of what a legislature is came up several times during the hearing.

“I thought it was interesting it was a question of what does the state legislature mean,” Moore told me. “I think I know what the state legislature is. We have a Legislative Building and I know there’s a House and there’s a Senate. If there’s something more, then, I’m not sure what that is.”

In their own words

Anti-gerrymandering activists with Common Cause NC shared a bus up to D.C. for the hearings. One of them was Becky Harper, a Raleigh real estate agent who sued the legislature in 2021 for gerrymandering and won, which is what led to this SCOTUS case.

She’s the Harper of Moore v. Harper, and got her photo outside the courthouse with Neal Katyal, the Supreme Court litigator who argued on behalf of her and Common Cause on Wednesday.

The other half of the case is, of course, Moore, a Republican from Kings Mountain.

While I interviewed Moore and Stein outside the courthouse after the arguments ended, Will heard from Harper and some of the activists in downtown Raleigh right before they boarded their bus to Washington.

Harper: “Gerrymandering is a bipartisan sin; politicians in power all like to do it, and big data makes it really, really easy. This case is about whether one party should be able to cement themselves in power, forever.”

Moore:“We felt like the state Supreme Court was just so far off the mark and just — some use the word, lawless, and it’s a reasonably descriptive term. Because where there is no law and someone simply just says, ‘This is what it is,’ when it doesn’t exist — probably a pretty good description.”

Stein: “We have a separation of powers and checks and balances to ensure that one branch of government doesn’t take over all of government. And these folks are arguing that our state Supreme Court has absolutely no role to play in interpreting our own state constitution. It is absolutely radical.”

Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper also went on MSNBC to weigh in: “This independent state legislature theory uses the Donald Trump formula. If you don’t like the result, just rip off the piece of the constitution you don’t like.”

Analyzing the case

This is Will. While Danielle was talking with all the famous politicians in D.C., I was at home with a sick toddler and slogging through the 208-page transcript of the oral arguments. I think she got the better assignment!

The transcript itself is on our website, for anyone else who wants to read it.

But let me save you the trouble. Also on our site is an article I wrote, “In their own words: Some of the most telling quotes from SCOTUS justices in NC case,” analyzing the transcript and revisiting key questions the nine justices posed during oral arguments.

Why does it matter?

Many legal observers smarter than me think there are probably four votes on the court in favor of the legislature’s argument, and three against it. If true, that leaves two justices — John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett — as the potential swing votes that either side needs for a five-vote majority.

So I read their comments with a particularly close eye. They played it pretty close to the chest, but I found a couple instances that might shine some light on which way they’re leaning.

Some of their colleagues, on the other hand, were not as cautious about hiding their opinions.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor accused North Carolina GOP leaders of rewriting history to fake support for their argument. And Justice Samuel Alito accused North Carolina’s Democratic Supreme Court justices of engaging in judicial activism.

All nine justices had at least couple exchanges that are worth exploring, which you’ll find in that article.

Thanks for reading. See you next week. In the meantime, tune into our stories, our tweets and our Under the Dome podcast for more developments.

— By Danielle Battaglia and Will Doran, reporters for The News & Observer. Email us at dbattaglia@mcclatchydc.com or wdoran@newsobserver.com.