The Supreme Court on Monday denied requests by Republican-aligned groups to overturn state court decisions that rejected congressional districts drawn by the GOP-controlled legislatures of Pennsylvania and North Carolina and imposed new maps approved by the courts, NPR reports.
Per NPR, the state courts "drew new congressional district maps after finding their state legislatures failed to adopt plans that met state constitutional and statutory requirements."
The GOP requests were based on the novel legal theory that because the U.S. Constitution gives state legislatures the power to draw congressional districts and oversee elections, state courts lack the authority to impose new electoral maps, The Washington Post explains.
The Post also reports that three of the court's six conservative justices found the argument compelling, while a fourth "expressed interest" but "said it was too close to the election to upend planning for primaries."
The North Carolina court "enacted congressional district boundaries drawn by three court-appointed redistricting special masters," while the Pennsylvania court chose a map from among more than a dozen submissions, according to Ballotpedia.