The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument in Moore v. Harper, a case regarding North Carolina’s congressional district map. North Carolina’s 2021 congressional map was approved by the Republican-controlled state legislature and subsequently challenged as a Republican partisan gerrymander, which is prohibited in North Carolina. The state Supreme Court invalidated the map and blocked its use in the 2022 midterm elections. A new map was eventually completed by court-appointed experts and used in the elections, but Republican legislative leaders appealed to the nation’s highest court. The case hinges on the so-called “independent state legislature theory,” which is the idea that the U.S. Constitution allows states’ lawmakers to regulate federal elections without checks and balances from other government entities.