BREAKING: Supreme Court rejects states' rights to create election policies

On Tuesday, a decision from the US Supreme Court upheld a previous ruling by a North Carolina state court that blocked a congressional district map on the basis of being too partisan. 

In a previous North Carolina case, it was concluded that an unfair amount of partisan gerrymandering had taken place, leading to challenges that ultimately brought the case to the US Supreme Court. With Tuesday's ruling, featuring an opinion written by Chief Justice Roberts, the judges determined that the federal elections clause does not grant state legislatures the ability to determine policies surrounding federal elections. Thus, SCOTUS found in a 6-3 vote that the North Carolina Supreme Court would not be barred from striking down congressional district maps put up by state legislators.

Writing for the court, Chief Justice John Roberts said that “state courts retain the authority to apply state constitutional restraints when legislatures act under the power conferred upon them by the Elections Clause. But federal courts must not abandon their own duty to exercise judicial review.”

Roberts also wrote that "In interpreting state law in this area, state courts may not so exceed the bounds of ordinary judicial review as to unconstitutionally intrude upon the role specifically reserved to state legislatures by Article I, Section 4, of the Federal Constitution."