Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/20a72_5hek.pdf
Page Number: 3.0

Cite as:  592 U. S. ____ (2020) 

3 

GORSUCH, J., dissenting 

state election laws is plain from the Federal and State Con-
stitutions. 
  Besides, even assuming the North Carolina General As-
sembly  could  delegate  its  Elections  Clause  authority  to 
other officials, its representatives contend before us that it 
has not authorized the deadline extension here, and under-
standably so.  State law provides the Board with supervi-
sory authority over elections.  N. C. Gen. Stat. Ann. §163–
22(a).    But  that  authority  permits  the  Board  to  prescribe 
regulations only if “they do not conflict” with state statutory 
law.  Ibid.  State law also furnishes the Board with power 
to fashion interim rules.  §163–22.2.  But that power too is 
circumscribed, triggered when a state statute has been (or 
likely would be) invalidated by a court.  That doesn’t sound 
like  a  blank  check  to  the  Board  allowing  it  to  rewrite  the 
election code in any and all consent decrees it may wish to 
enter.    Finally,  state  law  confers  upon  the  Board  certain 
emergency powers.  §163–27.1.  But, relevant for our pur-
poses,  the  Board  may  exercise  those  powers  only  when 
three conditions are met: (1) “the normal schedule for the 
election is disrupted” (2) by a “natural disaster” and (3) pro-
vided that the Board’s actions do not “unnecessar[ily] con-
flict” with statutory law.  Ibid.  There is no ground for think-
ing that the election “schedule” has been “disrupted”: North 
Carolina  stands  fully  equipped  to  conduct  its  election  on 
November 3.  Nor is COVID like the “natural disasters” the 
Board has pointed to in the past (e.g., hurricanes or power 
outages) that can disrupt the mechanics of running an elec-
tion, especially given that the General Assembly has long 
known about the pandemic’s challenges and expressly pre-
pared for them.  Finally, the change the Board adopted was 
deemed “unnecessary” by the General Assembly when it re-
tained the statutory ballot receipt deadline after consider-
ing COVID’s impact on election processes.  Any single one 
of these three problems is enough to sink the Board’s action.