Quick take: How important was Moore v. Harper?

 If you were not paying attention to the Supreme Court's ruling in Moore v. Harper, you could be forgiven, not merely because no sane person pays such close attention to politics, but even a politics junkie's bandwidth is occasionally challenged.  The legal doctrine in question was the "independent state legislature" notion.  Huh?  As is the case with any kooky, Republican (not "conservative") legal doctrine cooked up to serve a specific partisan objective, it not only fails any textual reading, but no Republican would accept meeting an other-footed shoe, or other shoe'd foot, or... fuck, it is much more difficult to do this without highfalutin references to John Rawls and the veil of ignorance.  The reason we, academics, speak with such obscurantism is that after so many years, we lose the ability to speak with clarity.  Anyway, it goes thusly.  Electoral processes are not only governed at the state level, but because they are done so, state legislatures are not even subject to judicial review.  If you think that your party controls state legislatures, then bully for you!  Would anyone accept the principle from behind the veil of ignorance?  No, and that is not what the Constitution says anyway, that document being written by committee through compromise, not as a moral statement by John Rawls anyway.

Still, SCOTUS called bullshit on the independent state legislature doctrine yesterday in Moore v. Harper.  How big a deal is this?  Over at Election Law Blog, Rick Hasen has been drawing out some things he didn't like in their ruling, arguing that it merely took a few worst-case-scenarios off the table, but I am slightly more equanimous on the ruling.  There are very few things about which I care.  Much of what matters to Hasen does not matter to me.  I have, however, been quite concerned about some worst case scenarios in which state legislatures just throw out votes, 'cuz.

In this matter, Moore v. Harper is quite important, although not a silver bullet.  It is important largely because it is preemptive.  SCOTUS would not go back, after state legislatures steal an election, to right the wrong.  However, by issuing Moore v. Harper before 2024, they take several maneuvers off the table.  All?  No, but the worst.

Hence, I call it a victory, or at least, a nice blocking maneuver.