Supreme Court denies conservative bid to control elections

Trancript

NIALA: Good morning! Welcome to Axios Today!

It’s Wednesday, June 28th.

I’m Niala Boodhoo.

Here’s what you need to know today: malaria in the U.S. – and more mosquito days across the country.

But first: the Supreme Court rejects a sweeping conservative bid to control elections. That’s…today’s One Big Thing.

NIALA: The Supreme Court yesterday denied state legislatures the unchecked power to set rules for federal elections. The justices voted 6-3 against the independent state legislature, legal theory, brought by North Carolina GOP lawmakers, the National Constitution Center's Jeffrey Rosen is here with that. And what else we need to know about the Supreme Court right now? Hi Jeff.

JEFF ROSEN: Hi.

NIALA: First, can you help us understand what this independent state legislature legal theory was?

JEFF: Absolutely. The entire theory, and in some ways, the future of American elections hinged on the meaning of a single word legislature. Article one, section four of the Constitution says, the elections shall be regulated in each state by the legislature thereof. And proponents of the independent state legislature theories say legislature means legislature it doesn't mean state courts interpreting what a legislature has done, and they say the Constitution gives the power to regulate elections exclusively to state legislatures and therefore state courts and no other body can review what the legislatures have done after the fact. In practice, if the Supreme Court had adopted this theory, it would mean that state legislatures could decide after the fact that Trump had won instead of Biden and changed the results of the election.

NIALA: Jeff, it seems logical that the Supreme Court wouldn't limit another court's power even if it was a state Supreme Court, right?

JEFF: Well, the independent state legislature doctrine would have the Supreme Court do exactly that and would basically say that based on a completely, ahistorical reading of this single word legislature, that, no other body created by a state constitution, including state courts, can weigh in about whether a legislature has acted constitutionally.

And what was so significant about Chief Justice Roberts' opinion was that he cited precedents going back to Marbury versus Madison to say that Supreme Courts have always exercised judicial review over the decisions of state legislatures. And he also pointed to Supreme Court precedents, which held that popular referenda and governor's vetoes could check state legislatures when it came to regulating election.

He pointed to state constitutions at the time of the founding that regulated state elections, and for all these reasons, he said, not only the text, but also precedent history and longstanding historical practice all rejected the independent state legislature doctrine.

NIALA: Can you remind us why Republican lawmakers in North Carolina were pushing for this and making this argument?

JEFF: Well when the case was first filed, they just didn't like the map that the Democratic Supreme Court had approved. What made things complicated is the court flipped after the fact and it was composed of Republican Justices who changed the map. Lots of folks said this should make the case go away. It should make it moot. But in a really important part, at the beginning of the opinion, Chief Justice Robert said the Supreme Court could still decide the case. More broadly some people think that Republicans wanted to preserved the ability of state legislatures in presidential elections to change their mind after the fact, and didn't want any federal court review of what they've done or state court review either.

And that was really what made the decision so incredibly significant. It's, it's one of the most important cases in involving the future of democracy that the US Supreme Court has ever decided. And it was absolutely historic, that it was six to three.

NIALA: What's your take on what we've seen from this majority conservative Supreme Court so far this term?

JEFF: Well, this is not the only decision where there's been a split among the conservatives. Chief Justice Roberts, importantly joined the liberal justices in a voting rights case, in involving Alabama and preserving the ability of the Voting Rights Act to require the creation of districts for minority voters. And there again, Chief Justice Roberts proved himself to be a nationalist, an institutionalist, and most importantly, not willing to upset. Decades of precedent. He didn't take the position that radical textualist readings could uproot lots of tradition and precedent in American history.

NIALA: Of course we're expecting some more major decisions this week, including the fate of affirmative action and President Biden's student loan forgiveness. What are you watching for as we reach the end of this term?

JEFF: Well, of course everyone's looking at both of those cases. There's a widespread expectation that the Supreme Court will indeed strike down affirmative action. The question is how broadly it will do so and, and we'll find that out soon. And the student debt case may also be a case where the conservative majority re coalesces and strikes down President Biden's debt plan. So this is by no means become a liberal court, but it is one, as we've been discussing, where the most extreme consequences for democracy have not materialized. And in that sense it remains the Court of Chief Justice John Roberts.

NIALA: Jeffrey Rosen is president of the National Constitution Center and also hosts the weekly “We the People Podcast.” Thanks, Jeff.

JEFF: Thank you.

NIALA: In a moment: what to know about malaria and mosquitoes in the U.S.

Welcome back to Axios Today. I’m Niala Boodhoo.

Malaria has been spread by mosquitoes locally in the U.S. for the first time in 20 years, the CDC alerted Monday. Four people in Sarasota County, Florida, and one in Cameron County, Texas, contracted the potentially deadly disease this spring through local transmission.

Axios’ Adriel Bettelheim has more.

ADRIEL BETTELHEIM: The disease was declared eliminated in the US in the early 1950s, but we still see about 2000 cases a year.

but those are usually contracted abroad from mosquitoes that carry a parasite. It's of course, uh, a huge public health problem in developing countries and tropical regions, and it accounts for more than 600,000 deaths each year by most estimates. The symptoms include fever, chills, headache, fatigue, kind of like flu-like symptoms.

And they begin, uh, 10 days to four weeks after infection. And if they're not treated promptly, it can become life-threatening. It can progress to a stage where a person's mental status changes. They can have seizures, other complications like kidney failure and coma. Authorities say most locally transmitted cases start when a mosquito bites an individual who's been infected abroad and then bites another person in the community.

They recommend using insect propellant, wearing protective clothing and to drain standing water. Also, they're telling health systems to stock up on malaria tests and treatments like Cordem or doxycycline. Authorities are of course also spraying affected areas with pesticide treatments.

The last locally acquired mosquito-borne malaria was in 2003 when eight cases were identified in Palm Beach County, Florida, and this week's alert notes that while the risk of locally acquired malaria is quite low, there's concern for a rise in imported cases this summer because more people are traveling internationally.

NIALA: That’s Axios’ Adriel Bettelheim.

The malaria news also comes as the number of "mosquito days" — that is, those with the hot and humid weather that the flying insects crave — has increased in many U.S. cities over the past several decades. Axios’ Alex Fitzpatrick has been reporting on this and he’s here to catch us up quick… Alex, what constitutes a “Mosquito Day”?

ALEX FITZPATRICK: A mosquito day, and I should say this is an analysis from Climate Central. It's a nonprofit climate research organization, is any day with average humidity of about 42% on average, uh, or higher, plus daily temperatures of between 50 and 95 degrees Fahrenheit.

NIALA: And where are we seeing these mosquito days increase?

ALEX: Most of the increases in the northeast United States, the Southeast United States, and the Northwest United States.

NIALA: But in some places you also are writing it's actually getting too hot for mosquitoes.

ALEX: Yeah, that's right. If you look at a lot of the, uh, southern, most cities, especially places like Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, even Southern California, it's just getting too hot for mosquitoes to thrive as much as they used to. So places like that are seeing fewer, uh, days for peak mosquito activity.

NIALA: Alex, we've been talking about. All of the very negative aspects of mosquitoes, do they do anything good for the ecosystem?

ALEX: Well, they are part of the food chain. You know, birds eat them and other animals eat them. And they also conserve a pollination role, not unlike bees. At the same time, you know, the public health risk that they pose is significant and real. Hundreds of thousands of people die globally every year from malaria. Mosquitoes carry everything from West Niala to Zika. These other viruses and illnesses they carry are significant problems. And so their populations need to be controlled from a public health perspective.

NIALA: So how are some states trying to confront this?

ALEX: So there's a few interesting efforts. I mean, there's the basic anti-mosquito efforts of, you know, public health messaging around don't let standing water sit out after a rainstorm, because obviously mosquitoes breed and standing cools of water, to more experimental things like, uh, you know, in Florida and California there's experiments going on with genetically modified mosquitoes, which are basically being released into the wild in an effort to, uh, call mosquito populations to reduce this problem.

NIALA: Alex Fitzpatrick is the editor of What's Next. Thanks, Alex.

Alex Fitzpatrick: Sure. Thanks for having me.

NIALA: That’s it for us today!

I’m Niala Boodhoo - thanks for listening - stay safe and we’ll see you back here tomorrow morning.