As most readers are by now aware, the Supreme Court refused to proceed with challenges by President Trump and the Republican Party to the outcome of certain states’ elections in November 2020.
Democrats and Republicans in Pennsylvania had clashed in court over the three-day extension. Democrats contended that the coronavirus pandemic was sufficient reason to extend the deadline to accommodate a significant expansion of mail-in voting. The state Supreme Court agreed, granting the extension over the objection of the Republican-controlled legislature.
Republicans argued that extending the deadline violated the Constitution and federal law and asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block the state court’s ruling.
There’s more at the link.
To me, the biggest problem with SCOTUS’ decision is that it leaves US voters out in the cold. The court refused to intervene prior to the results of the election being announced; but, now that they have been announced, it states that it would be “moot” to intervene at this point. In other words, there is no avenue of jurisprudence available to voters like you and I to challenge such results. As SCOTUS would put it, we “lack standing” before the fact, and our challenge would serve no purpose after the fact.
Justice Thomas expressed this dilemma well in his dissent.
“The Constitution gives to each state legislature authority to determine the ‘Manner’ of federal elections… Yet both before and after the 2020 election, nonlegislative officials in various States took it upon themselves to set the rules instead. As a result, we received an unusually high number of petitions and emergency applications contesting those changes. The petitions here present a clear example. The Pennsylvania Legislature established an unambiguous deadline for receiving mail-in ballots: 8 p.m. on election day,” Thomas wrote. “Dissatisfied, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court extended that deadline by three days. The court also ordered officials to count ballots received by the new deadline even if there was no evidence—such as a postmark—that the ballots were mailed by election day. That decision to rewrite the rules seems to have affected too few ballots to change the outcome of any federal election. But that may not be the case in the future. These cases provide us with an ideal opportunity to address just what authority nonlegislative officials have to set election rules, and to do so well before the next election cycle. The refusal to do so is inexplicable.
“One wonders what this Court waits for. We failed to settle this dispute before the election, and thus provide clear rules. Now we again fail to provide clear rules for future elections. The decision to leave election law hidden beneath a shroud of doubt is baffling. By doing nothing, we invite further confusion and erosion of voter confidence. Our fellow citizens deserve better and expect more of us,” he continued.
Again, more at the link.
I think Justice Thomas is exactly right. SCOTUS had a golden opportunity to clarify an important point of law – and failed. It punted, rather than settle the matter. That means the next time there are such disagreements, those challenging the results will believe, right from the start, that they’re going to be cheated out of a fair, honest and trustworthy election, and that the courts will do nothing to stop this.
Never mind this (well, don’t, because it’s proof that we need to nuke DC from orbit “just to be sure”).
The ruling that local cities DAs can pursue a private citizen, i.e., Trump, even after he’s out is opening the door to never-ending hounding of anyone not “approved”. More to the point, the Left is showing that it will raze every law, every standard, and every ethic and moral to send a message: CROSS US AND WE WILL MAKE YOU PAY.
When the black flag goes up, no mercy.
The jury box was pretty much shut down when the courts said voters had no standing (if I remember right) when wanting to see Obama’s birth certificate.
Whatever justice We want We will have to fulfill our Constitutional duty to get it.
Diplomacy failed quite some time ago. It is ( past) time for other actions from citizens that have permanent results. If and when it starts, maybe the majority of the citizens will get swept up in the euphoria of the movement like they did after the 911 attacks. False flag yes I know but it was the last and only time in my 61 yrs. I saw the country united in Patriotism. Nothing will change until the right people are tits up.
It’s past time to just ignore the Feds. My family has all moved from North Carolina to Missouri and Texas for a reason. We see the storm coming. I see no possible way to have accomplished in Forsyth County what’s being accomplished in Missouri. https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/02/mercer-county-becomes-third-missouri-second-amendment-sanctuary-county-monday-declaration/ Here in flyover country, people are not so ‘diverse’ in race, thinking, or politics. There is more community, especially in the rural heartland.
I had a great interview in a small town in Texas. I would have moved in a cold second. The wife, alas, put so many impossible conditions on the move it didn’t happen.
I have a grim fear we may need to move under rather “hasty” circumstances.
So you let the emotional one make the most important decisions
They are almost all like that. A large part of why we are in this mess is men letting their women run roughshod over them. Most men I know are 100% controlled by their wives it is pathetic.
“That decision to rewrite the rules seems to have affected too few ballots to change the outcome of any federal election. ”
And the justice knows this…. how? Seems to me that Wisconsin, Georgia, Pennsylvania all were close enough to overturn with the illegal mail in ballots. But since we never got a real audit, and were blocked from any real discovery, seems we wont ever know the truth and will go down the same path in 2022. Guess we just wait till the 4th box is brought to use.
It pains to think about, but let’s see how long till we hear Justice Thomas dies of “natural causes”(Scalia’d), or an “accident”?