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Page Number: 4

2 

MOORE v. HARPER 

ALITO, J., dissenting 

In my view, the applicants have shown that the question 
presented by this case easily satisfies our usual criteria for
certiorari, see this Court’s Rule 10, and it is also likely that 
they  would  prevail  on  the  merits  if  review  were  granted. 
The  Elections  Clause  provides  that  rules  governing  the 
“Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Sena-
tors and Representatives” must be “prescribed in each State 
by  the  Legislature  thereof.”  Art.  I,  §4,  cl. 1  (emphasis 
added).  This Clause could have said that these rules are to 
be prescribed “by each State,” which would have left it up
to each State to decide which branch, component, or officer 
of  the  state  government  should  exercise  that  power,  as 
States  are  generally  free  to  allocate  state  power  as  they
choose.  But that is not what the Elections Clause says.  Its 
language specifies a particular organ of a state government,
and we must take that language seriously. 

In  this  case,  after  North  Carolina  gained  a  seat  in  the
House of Representatives, the North Carolina General As-
sembly twice adopted new congressional districting maps. 
See 2021 N. C. Sess. Law 174; 2022 N. C. Sess. Law 3.  But 
on both occasions, the State Supreme Court rejected those 
maps and ultimately ordered that the 2022 election proceed 
on the basis of a map of the court’s own creation.  See App.
to Application for Stay 2a, 13a–14a, 266a (App.).  The court 
justified its actions on the ground that the General Assem-
bly’s maps constituted partisan gerrymanders and thus vi-
olated a congeries of state constitutional provisions.1  But 

—————— 

1 See  App.  12a  (citing  N.  C.  Const.,  Art.  I,  §19  (“No  person  shall  be 
taken, imprisoned, or disseized of his freehold, liberties, or privileges, or 
outlawed, or exiled, or in any manner deprived of his life, liberty, or prop-
erty,  but  by  the  law  of  the  land.    No  person  shall  be  denied  the  equal 
protection of the laws; nor shall any person be subjected to discrimina-
tion by the State because of race, color, religion, or national origin”)); §14
(“Freedom  of  speech  and  of  the  press  are two  of  the great  bulwarks  of 
liberty and therefore shall never be restrained, but every person shall be
held responsible for their abuse); §12 (“The people have a right to assem-