It’s frustrating seeing what SCOTUS has become. They have too much power for most of the justices in it. They’re far, far too favorable to Trump. It’s hurting the country because it seems they don’t think – they just do what Trump tells them to. They’re making major changes that should have required much more thought, not just about the immediate effect but also about the future. Allow me to mention the overturning of Roe v. Wade. This one, though, this one has me seriously worried. And it’s not looking hopeful. Thanks to Raw Story:
A democracy that rests on a single Supreme Court vote is “living on borrowed time,” and Monday’s oral arguments suggest that time may be running out, Slate legal analyst Mark Joseph Stern warned Monday. Stern watched four conservative Supreme Court justices signal their willingness to gut mail ballot grace period laws in 30 states, potentially invalidating the votes of 750,000 Americans, with fewer than 150 days until the midterms. “The Supreme Court may be poised to commit the single biggest act of disenfranchisement in modern history in a direct assault on the constitutional authority of states to set election laws,” he wrote, mincing no words.
Well, now, isn’t that lovely? It used to be all about the postmark. Now it’s looking as though they want to shred that to make Trump happy. He keeps insisting that mailed ballots are subject to fraud, except they aren’t. SCOTUS apparently doesn’t see it that way. It didn’t become a problem until Trump made it one. Still harping on that 2020 election. Petty little tyrant. And I can’t see that it would have made a difference in any presidential election, either.
The case, Watson v. Republican National Committee, centers on whether states can count mail ballots that arrive after Election Day if they were postmarked on time. About 30 states have such laws, but the Trump administration wants them wiped out in “one fell swoop,” he wrote. Stern expressed alarm at the legal stakes and the court’s reasoning. “That news, in itself, is a five-alarm fire for democracy. But what makes it even more disturbing is the fact that so many justices proved eager to embrace a legal theory that is incoherent, dishonest, and rooted in paranoid hostility toward mail voting,” he emphasized.
Really now, justices? This doesn’t make any sense. Let the states do what they’ve done for many, many years. They’ve had lots of practice. They know how to handle things. But Trump the a$$hole thinks it’s going to make a difference in the upcoming elections. He wants all the Republicans he’s cowed to stay in office so he doesn’t have to face any hard questions. There are enough of them leaving that we have a chance at flipping the House, and we’re getting within range of flipping the Senate, though it will be a battle. Damn, but I want Trump to truly be impeached and found guilty this time, the whole kit and kaboodle. Can you make a case for having less than zero respect for someone?
Justice Samuel Alito invoked the “appearance of fraud” as justification for gutting the laws, even though Mississippi’s own solicitor general acknowledged there has not been a single documented case of fraud from late-arriving ballots this century. Stern noted the only reason an “appearance of fraud” exists is that Republicans spent years manufacturing it, and now they want to use that manufactured paranoia as a legal weapon. “Watson should have been laughed out of court,” Stern wrote. “Instead, it received a warm reception.”
He concluded: “A democracy that rests on the knife’s edge of a single Supreme Court vote is living on borrowed time.”
So now you see why I’m worried. This is a much bigger problem than it appears. Gutting state voting laws? That’s a lot of changes to have to make before the midterms. And maybe that’s the point. Trump is trying everything and anything he can do to “steal” votes in the midterms. He wants control over everything. He can’t manage his job as president, let alone oversee voting. He’ll make it a bigger mess. After all, he’s had lots of experience with making things a mess. But …. come on SCOTUS, do the RIGHT thing.
See you soon!
Friends, I know everyone begs you for money. I promise that among all those asking for spare change, we are the smallest and the hardest-working. We’re a group of old, disabled people, except for one writer in his mid-50s. The rest of us are in our sixties and seventies, and this is a labor of love. All we’re asking for is the chance to keep telling the truth about Trump and help ensure democracy survives. If you can help, please do. Thank you. Ursula
It’s not who wins the votes, it’s who counts the votes, that decides elections.
Joseph Stalin.
So basically, any service member who is stationed outside the United States must ensure their ballot is mailed a month or more in advance of an election, so that their ballot gets counted. Another act of love by this administration towards our troops.
Once again, this is a question of states’ rights versus federal government. The numbers involved are unlikely to swing an election one way or the other, but they could; the more important issue is who controls the voting laws, a state or Washington. Once upon a time, the Repugnican party was staunchly pro-states-rights, in the heady days pre-Trump and before the congressional GOP surrendered all its authority to him. Personally, I have little doubt that this corrupt supreme court will do exactly what Trump and Project 2025 dictate.