Strategy, to have courts swing election, in tatters

[struggle4progress]

Paul Waldman
November 13, 2020 at 3:50 p.m. EST

... Trump ... expected the court’s conservatives to deliver him a second term ...

These cases are so weak that it appears the Supreme Court will be spared the need to intercede on Trump’s behalf, surely to the relief of the justices. Not that the court’s six conservatives didn’t want to see Trump win, but they were no doubt uncomfortable with the idea of handing him a victory in the way he wanted ...

... he’s so far behind that his lawyers can’t come up with any good reason the results in any state should be reversed to give him the state’s electoral votes, let alone in the multiple states he’d need to flip to prevail ...

... it would take a partisan intervention so extraordinary, so unjustified, so appalling to any notion of democracy that if the Supreme Court actually gave Trump what he wanted, it could cause a constitutional crisis unprecedented in American history ...

... his lawyers .. unable to provide any evidence of fraud at all ... can’t even claim to have found fraud ...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/11/13/trumps-strategy-have-courts-swing-election-lies-tatters/

[Sherman A1]

1. Good news

Still I have some concerns that Billy Barr is up to no good and will try for more rabbits coming out of his hat.

[True Blue American]

5. Barr will try but. He is pretty much toothless now.

He will pull a few dirty tricks but his team is not afraid. It is going to be a full time job for an AG to fix the Justice Department. Do you think Coons can do it? I hear he is at the top of the list.

Wonder what role Jon Meacham, Historian will play? He has joined the Biden teal along with 3 others from MSNBC. All well known and respected.

[Lonestarblue]

7. We need Coons in the Senate.

Even if we get the two Georgia seats, we need every Dem Senator to stay in the Senate.

There are lots of good candidates for AG, perhaps Preet Bharara or one of the other state AGs. We need someone who will be tough.

[struggle4progress]

2. Supreme Court goes idle

Robert Barnes
November 13, 2020 at 7:07 p.m. EST

Has the Supreme Court hit the pause button on all things President Trump?

The justices for more than three weeks have been holding on to the president’s last-ditch plea to shield his private financial records from Manhattan’s district attorney.

And all has been quiet on the election front.

Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. on Nov. 6 directed Pennsylvania election officials to segregate .. ballots received in the three-day window after Election Day, and said he was referring the matter .. for further action.

No further action has come. Nor has the court acted on a separate request from the Trump campaign, pending for a week, to intervene in the case ...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/supreme-court-trump-tax-returns-election-dispute/2020/11/13/2fc25b5a-252d-11eb-a688-5298ad5d580a_story.html

[MyOwnPeace]

11. Re: Alito

"Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. on Nov. 6 directed Pennsylvania election officials to segregate .. ballots received in the three-day window after Election Day, and said he was referring the matter .. for further action."

To be clear, this was a "procedural" ruling - the state of Pennsylvania had ALREADY ordered them to be kept separate - there were NO shenanigans going on and nothing else has been done to change any vote totals or procedures.

Just another futile and wasted effort by BunkerBoy's team.

[struggle4progress]

3. Can he win with electors bid? State GOP says no

By BOB CHRISTIE and NICHOLAS RICCARDI

Republican leaders in four critical states won by President-elect Joe Biden say they won’t participate in a legally dubious scheme to flip their state’s electors to vote for President Donald Trump. Their comments effectively shut down a half-baked plot some Republicans floated as a last chance to keep Trump in the White House.

State GOP lawmakers in Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin have all said they would not intervene in the selection of electors, who ultimately cast the votes that secure a candidate’s victory. Such a move would violate state law and a vote of the people, several noted.

“I do not see, short of finding some type of fraud — which I haven’t heard of anything — I don’t see us in any serious way addressing a change in electors,” said Rusty Bowers, Arizona’s Republican House speaker, who says he’s been inundated with emails pleading for the legislature to intervene. “They are mandated by statute to choose according to the vote of the people.”

The idea loosely involves GOP-controlled legislatures dismissing Biden’s popular vote wins in their states and opting to select Trump electors. While the endgame was unclear, it appeared to hinge on the expectation that a conservative-leaning Supreme Court would settle any dispute over the move ...

https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-joe-biden-donald-trump-legislature-pennsylvania-b199b2debc87fbb20612a48835bc0dba

[True Blue American]

4. I think Judge Roberts

Is aware of just how bad the Rehnquist Court decision on Bush Vs. Gore left such a taint on the Court he does not want that for his. He has already done enough damage with Citizens United. That stinks to high heaven.

Alito and Thomas seem to be the worst. Thomas wife Ginny controls him.

[Fyrefox]

6. We can all be thankful...

Trump's strategy to have the courts swing the election to him is indeed in tatters. Trump's most insidious attacks on American democracy involved attacking our institutions, specifically the free press and the judiciary. Fortunately they have withstood the assaults, although the Supreme Court has been tainted and skewed hard to the right. The blotch of Trumpism will abide long after he is gone...

[Captain Zero]

8. Maybe not. Thomas is old and decrepit and

Alito could also kick over. Kavsnaugh's liver has to be a mess.

[JI7]

9. This is why it's important to win big and why even solid blue state democrats need to come out

and vote all the time.

[George II]

10. That was a big thing I was worried about - that his judges would side with trump even if...

....they had little or no case.

In just about every case though they've given him the big middle finger and ruled on the merits, or lack of merits.

[MyOwnPeace]

12. Yes, it DOES seem

that there has been a whole string of "lack of merits" cases - typical Trump leadership!

[North Shore Chicago]

13. +1

Until the darkness at the end of this tunnel returns to light, I will not be 100% confident that they will not pull something out of their very black bag o' tricks. Does one really believe they care about a stinking constitutional crisis?

They are never to be trusted, never.