Brett Kavanaugh Just Endorsed A Radical Legal Theory That Could Cause Election Chaos

[UCmeNdc]

It begins.........

The Trump appointee affirms Trump’s suspicions about late-counted ballots and lays out his desire to block state courts from expanding voting rights.

The five conservatives on the Supreme Court affirmed an appeals court ruling overturning a decision that would have extended Wisconsin’s mail-in ballot receipt deadline by six days. Absentee ballots in Wisconsin now must be received by the close of polls on Election Day.

This 5-3 ruling comes as part of a string of decisions by the conservatives on the court blocking lower court rulings that would have made it easier to vote during the coronavirus pandemic. But hidden within the main concurrence written by Justice Brett Kavanaugh are two threats much greater than overturning six extra days for ballots to arrive by mail: He explicitly endorsed legal theories that could help President Donald Trump stop the counting of mailed ballots after Election Day or, worse, override results with the help of Republican state legislatures.

First, Kavanaugh, who was appointed by Trump, affirmed the sentiment expressed by the president that it is somehow necessary for the election to be decided on election night and that suspicion should be cast upon valid ballots counted after Nov. 3 in states that allow election officials to do so.

“For important reasons, most States, including Wisconsin, require absentee ballots to be received by election day, not just mailed by election day,” Kavanaugh writes. “Those States want to avoid the chaos and suspicions of impropriety that can ensue if thousands of absentee ballots flow in after election day and potentially flip the results of an election. And those States also want to be able to definitively announce the results of the election on election night, or as soon as possible thereafter. Moreover, particularly in a Presidential election, counting all the votes quickly can help the State promptly resolve any disputes, address any need for recounts, and begin the process of canvassing and certifying the election results in an expeditious manner.”

These are highly controversial statements, as someone like Kavanaugh, who worked as a lawyer on the Bush v. Gore case that decided the 2000 presidential election for George W. Bush, should know. The 2004 election that followed, reelecting Bush, was not officially decided until the day after the election. Late-counted ballots, whether they be absentee or provisional ballots, decided the 2018 Arizona Senate election. These were all valid ballots. But Trump, in his quest to undermine faith in democratic elections and lay the groundwork for contesting the 2020 election results, says all ballots that are counted after Election Day are either suspicious or fraudulent. This is the sentiment Kavanaugh echoed.


https://www.huffpost.com/entry/brett-kavanaugh-trump-2020-election_n_5f977b16c5b6e1e7076381c2

[UCmeNdc]

1. More on the subject here:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100214369000

[TreasonousBastard]

2. My thought is that the right to vote is paramount and should be allowed unless something...

is definitively disqualifying. They are going at it as though voting is a privilege, and we must prove our right to vote.

Besides that, the states aren't required to count the votes until December, and the EC to send their results until January. All of this is by law, not the Constitution, and does not show any need to rush the vote. And Bush v. Gore was never, iirc, meant to be a precedent of any kind.

So, there seems to be absolutely no right, rhyme, nor reason for the SC to get involved in this election at all.

But they will, which makes the Court political, not judicial.

[UCmeNdc]

3. Trump will do anything to win 2020

Anything!

[no_hypocrisy]

4. Would Kavanaugh still endorse that legal stance if Biden were overwhelmingly winning

on Election Day? Wouldn't he want to keep counting votes in the vain hope that Trump could win via paper ballots?