Cleary Gottlieb filed an amicus curiae brief on behalf of Human Rights Watch, the largest international human rights organization based in the United States, in support of respondents in Moore v. Harper, currently before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Petitioners in Moore argue that state courts are barred from reviewing claims of gerrymandering and seek to vacate a decision by the North Carolina Supreme Court striking down the North Carolina legislature’s gerrymandered congressional map for violating the North Carolina Constitution.
Human Rights Watch argued in its brief that by approving ratification of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), Congress guaranteed to all U.S. persons the right to vote free from partisan gerrymandering and discrimination as well as an effective remedy against violations of that right. It further argued the petitioners’ position—that the U.S. Constitution bars state courts from reviewing claims of partisan gerrymandering—would deprive U.S. citizens of any effective remedy, thereby directly contravening the protections set forth in the ICCPR and the ICERD. Finally, it explained that in approving the ICCPR and ICERD, Congress recognized the important foreign policy interests served by guaranteeing these political rights, and argued that adopting the petitioners’ theory would thwart these objectives and hamper the United States’ ability to promote its interests in protecting fundamental rights across the world.
Read the brief here.