North Carolina's Legislative Authority Under The Founding Era Constitutions.pdf

The petitioners, Timothy K. Moore, in his official capacity as Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives, et al., seek a writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court of North Carolina. The respondents, Rebecca Harper, et al., argue that the Elections Clause of the North Carolina Constitution, which grants Congress the power to enforce congressional elections, is unconstitutional.

The amici curiae, Scholars of the Founding Era, argue in support of the respondents. They contend that the Elections Clause was intended to answer two ends: to experiment with unresolved questions about congressional elections, and to empower Congress to defend its own elections against the abuse of that power by the States. One potential abuse would be election schemes that violated the norms of democratic equality inherent in the image of the legislature as a miniature of the polity.

The amici curiae also argue that the framers of the first constitutions were concerned with ensuring a true correspondence between society and the composition of representative assemblies. In the decade after the first state constitutions were adopted, criticism of the performance of the state legislatures became a driving force in American political thinking, shaping the agenda of the Federal Convention and the context within which the Elections Clause was drafted.

The amici curiae further argue that the "Pinckney Plan" is a misleading document created by Charles Pinckney years after the Convention, and the Committee of Detail therefore could have made no "deliberate" change to its language. The amici curiae also rely on the amply documented discussions of the Elections Clause that occurred during the Ratification Debates of 1787-88, which confirm and amplify this interpretation.

The amici curiae cite various authorities, including Bernard Bailyn, Conceptual Change and the Constitution, Documentary History of Ratification of Constitution, Donald Lutz, Gordon S. Wood, and Jack Rakove. They also rely on the writings of John Locke, Jonathan Elliot, and Rosemarie Zagarri.

In conclusion, the amici curiae argue that the Elections Clause was intended to empower Congress to defend its own elections against the abuse of that power by the States, and that the framers of the first constitutions were concerned with ensuring a true correspondence between society and the composition of representative assemblies.