Several commentators have already warned of the next blow to America’s democracy courtesy of SCOTUS, namely via the blockbuster case-to-be, Moore v. Harper. And who better to quote regarding America’s impending demise than Laurence H. Tribe, a University professor emeritus at Harvard Law School? In the Los Angeles Times, he writes, “The Supreme Court is poised to cut the heart out of majority rule. The Supreme Court’s extremist justices are aiming their next dagger at the heart of the entire democratic enterprise: voters’ right to pick leaders of their choice. … In Moore, Republican state legislators petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court, advancing a debunked right-wing doctrine innocuously labeled the ‘independent state legislature’ theory. It maintains that state courts can play no role in overseeing their legislatures in federal election matters. … Adopting the independent state legislature theory would amount to right-wing justices making up law to create an outcome of one-party rule.”
The Brennan Center for Justice has a good primer on the independent state legislature theory. They write, “The Constitution delegates power to administer federal elections to the states, subject to Congressional override. There is, however, a disagreement about how much power is delegated and to which state actors exactly. There are two relevant clauses. One is the Elections Clause, which reads, ‘The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations.’ The other is the Presidential Electors Clause, which reads, ‘Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors.’ The dispute hinges on how to understand the word ‘legislature.’ The long-running understanding is that it refers to each state’s general lawmaking processes, including all the normal procedures and limitations. So if a state constitution subjects legislation to being blocked by a governor’s veto or citizen referendum, election laws can be blocked via the same means. And state courts must ensure that laws for federal elections, like all laws, comply with their state constitutions.” Does anyone believe that SCOTUS will not take this opportunity to re-interpret the Constitution and their own previous precedent to give more power to state legislatures and deny people the power to vote? I don’t have to understand or be knowledgeable in jurisprudence or legal theorizing or really anything about the law because this SCOTUS doesn’t care about the law; they care about the end result and use the law only as the means. So, as long as I understand what the end is, I can confidently predict the outcome.
What is the end? The Brennan Center says it all, “The nightmare scenario is that a legislature, displeased with how an election official on the ground has interpreted her state’s election laws, would invoke the theory as a pretext to refuse to certify the results of a presidential election and instead select its own slate of electors. Indeed, this isn’t far from the plan attempted by Trump allies following his loss in the 2020 election. And, according to former federal judge J. Michael Luttig — a distinguished conservative jurist — the theory is a part of the ‘Republican blueprint to steal the 2024 election.’” This is what SCOTUS wants. They want state legislatures to be able to steal all future elections so RepubliKKKlans can remain in permanent power. This is what people want. This is why people elected traitor trump. Americans are stupid and hate democracy. Full stop. It’s not complicated, f***tards! And SCOTUS is going to make sure people get their wish. The end is coming. No one believes me, but it is. How do you think Americans will react when their states overturn the will of the people? I know how they’ll act. The same as they always do: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Welcome to stupid America!