By Andrew Chung

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Though the U.S. Supreme Court appears reluctant to free North Carolina Republican lawmakers from judicial scrutiny as much as they want on voting rules, the restrictions it may allow still could give politicians more power over the way federal elections are conducted at a delicate time for American democracy.

Hearing arguments on Wednesday in a fight over a map laying out the state's 14 U.S. House of Representatives districts, some of the conservative justices balked at the broadest arguments by these lawmakers arising from a contentious legal theory that would remove any role of state courts and state constitutions in regulating presidential and congressional elections.

The court has a 6-3 conservative majority. Some combination of the six conservatives can be expected to determine the outcome, considering the opposition by the three liberal justices to the "independent state legislature" doctrine.

Three of the conservatives - Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett - are likely to be pivotal. They seemed to focus on a narrower option than the Republican lawmakers sought - curbing state court authority to overrule voting policies crafted by state politicians in instances in which judges act more like legislators.

"It would be fair to say, whether a broad or narrow ruling, it's a win for North Carolina lawmakers," said Jason Snead, a conservative elections expert.

This type of "middle ground"...

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