Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/21a455_5if6.pdf
Page Number: 5

Cite as:  595 U. S. ____ (2022) 

3 

ALITO, J., dissenting 

none of those provisions says anything about partisan ger-
rymandering, and all but one make no reference to elections
at all. 

The most relevant provision states simply that “[a]ll elec-
tions shall be free.”  N. C. Const., Art. I, §10.  This guaran-
tee of “free elections” dates all the way back to the North 
Carolina Constitution of 1776, see Art. VI, but for 246 years 
that language was not found to prohibit partisan gerryman-
dering.  In 2015, the State Supreme Court held that “a par-
tisan gerrymandering challenge” failed because it was “ ‘not
based upon a justiciable standard.’ ”2  Only this year did the
State  Supreme  Court  change  course  and  discern  in  the
State  Constitution  a  judicially  enforceable  prohibition  of
partisan gerrymandering.  Explaining the reasons for this
new interpretation, the court noted that the State Consti-
tution  is  difficult  to  amend  and  that  North  Carolina  is  “a 
state without a citizen referendum process.”  App. 35a.  The 
court concluded that “the only way that partisan gerryman-
dering can be addressed is through the courts.”  Ibid. (em-
phasis added).  These explanations have the hallmarks of 
legislation.

The applicants, who are members of the North Carolina
Legislature, contend that the State Supreme Court took it 
upon itself to decide the “Manner” in which the State’s con-
gressional elections will be held and that the court therefore 
usurped the power that the Elections Clause confines to the 
“Legislature.”  The  other  side  answers  that  state  election 
laws must be interpreted and applied by the state courts, 
that this is what the State Supreme Court did in this case 
when it interpreted and applied the State Constitution, and 

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ble together to consult for their common good, to instruct their represent-
atives, and to apply to the General Assembly for redress of grievances; 
but secret political societies are dangerous to the liberties of a free people
and shall not be tolerated”); and §10 (“All elections shall be free”). 

2 See App. 113a (quoting Dickson v. Rucho, 368 N. C. 481, 534, 781 S. E. 

2d 404, 440 (2015), vacated on other grounds, 581 U. S. ___ (2017)).