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Trump’s declaration that he intends to go to the Supreme Court surprised him only in part – he had mentioned half of that possibility in recent campaign events.
In particular, it has a count of ballots mailed in advance from Election Day, which can be legally recognized by state election councils, provided they are sent on time. In each state, of course, the rules are different.
Reuters / Photo by Scanpix / Donald Trump
Critics of the Trump administration have long spoken of the danger that the president, who has appointed three conservative justices to the Supreme Court, will try to turn the institution into a political tool.
In fact, Republicans have already built a small army of lawyers, since, by the way, Democrats have envisioned those tactics. It is true that everything will depend on whether the presidential team will be able to provide convincing evidence of the alleged injustice.
Biden’s campaign attorney, Bob Bauer, has already said that Trump “will suffer one of the most embarrassing defeats the president has ever suffered on the Supreme Court.”
First, the lower instance
Of course, the important thing in this case is that Trump, who already began to mislead the public in the morning after the elections with doubts about the legitimate count of the votes cast legally, has placed three conservative justices on the Supreme Court during his four-year term.
If ideology alone mattered, and if the principles of judicial independence didn’t work in America, these justices would likely make decisions in favor of Trump and the Republicans. Critics are afraid of that.
AFP / Scanpix Photo / United States Presidential Elections: Donald Trump and Joe Biden
However, even conservative ideologues themselves constantly emphasize that Supreme Court justices adhere to the principles of political neutrality and the Constitution, that Democrats would like to bring the motives of partisan bias to the work of the court.
The Supreme Court is, in principle, a court of last resort and can choose carefully which appeals to consider, usually in cases pending before lower courts.
This just means that judges seeking to avoid any accusation of politicking will want to see very compelling evidence of alleged violations against themselves.
When asked to comment on Trump’s words about the Supreme Court, Jan Baran, a lawyer who has been representing Republicans and elections for many years, simply replied, “I don’t know what that comment means, I don’t think he himself know it. There are legal mechanisms, but evidence, facts, arguments are needed. “
Furthermore, the Supreme Court is, in principle, a court of last resort and can choose carefully which appeals to consider, usually in cases pending before lower courts.
This means that, first, Trump’s campaign moves will be seen in court at the state level, as in Pennsylvania.
On Wednesday, Republicans already tried to convince a federal judge of the need to discard the ballots that the wrong voters allowed to correct. But Judge Timothy Savage accepted that appeal very coolly; in any case, it is only 49 or 93 votes.
An important case in Florida
This year’s presidential elections in the United States are reminiscent of a minefield primarily because the COVID-19 pandemic forced states to find ways to ensure that voters had the right to vote in the safest way possible.
Among the decisions was the facilitation of the early voting by mail procedure. But, let’s say, proposals to extend the deadline for counting early votes, simply because of the large number of such ballots, have already received complaints from the courts.
However, it is important to remember that trying to seek justice for elections in state courts is nothing new. In most cases, these tests don’t change anything.
But the 2000 elections became an exception. Then, a series of cases of violated voting procedures reached the Supreme Court, which halted the counting process and presented a victory to George W. Bush in Florida, as well as in all elections.
AFP / “Scanpix” nuotr./Alas Gore’as
All the confusion lasted up to 35 days. Initially, the media had already announced the victory of Democratic candidate Alo Gore in Florida on election night, but then changed their mind, with GWBush’s final lead reaching just 1,784 votes.
Gore demanded a recount of the votes and GWBush’s lead fell to 537 votes. For the Democrat, of course, this was not enough, as he believed that a fair count of hand-filled ballots that were not inserted into special calculating machines would gain an advantage.
The Supreme Court ruled in favor of GWBush by five conservative justices, and four more progressive justices voted against suspending the vote count.
He then appealed to the Florida Supreme Court. Another recalculation took place when the latter so decided, but then the Supreme Court of all the United States, intervening, ordered that the process be suspended and GWBush won. He obtained 271 votes from voters and won the United States presidential election.
„Reuters“ / „Scanpix“ nuotr./GWBushas
Attorneys who closely investigated the 2000 case note that the Supreme Court later ruled in favor of GWBush with the votes of five conservative justices, and four more progressive justices voted against suspending the vote count.
Again, it is important to emphasize that 20 years ago everything was determined by a state. This time, J. Biden may be superior across his group, so a lawsuit or two would not help D. Trump.
What are D. Trump’s tactics?
Republicans went to court with more than 40 formal complaints before the election, and Trump’s tactic appears to be to explain that any facilitation of the voting process in the heat of a pandemic violates the Constitution and could lead to fraud.
Such wording, according to experts, is clearly directed to the Supreme Court. Republicans also say that this year’s voting rules are set by state governors, not the legislature. This can also be incompatible with the Constitution.
AFP / Scanpix Photo / US Supreme Court
As mentioned above, due to the heavy load on the United States postal system, the time within which mailed votes can be received has been extended. More time has also been spent counting votes and other steps have been taken to facilitate the process.
The Trump campaign on Wednesday called for a vote count in Wisconsin (which will only occur after about two weeks of counting all the votes, ed.), And also challenged the vote count in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia.
It’s true that while the Trump campaign said it would require the court to suspend vote counting in Pennsylvania because Democrats weren’t making the process transparent, in Philadelphia the counting procedure was even broadcast live.
Can Republicans Win?
The most common way to fight for election results in the US is to formally appeal the organization of elections in a particular state so that certain votes are not registered. As mentioned, this is the goal in Pennsylvania.
In this state, however, judges often require detailed evidence of violations, for example a detailed written description of what was allegedly illegal.
Conservative Trump Justice Amy Coney Barrett has joined the Supreme Court.
By the way, Pennsylvania is already on the Supreme Court’s radar. Republicans have previously appealed a decision by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that allows election officials to accept ballots mailed in the mail three days after the election.
„Reuters“ / „Scanpix“ nuotr./Amy Coney Barrett
The US Supreme Court declined to consider the complaint before the election, but in another case agreed with Republicans who said the state could not count the most recent votes sent by mail. Chief Justice John Roberts, on the other hand, emphasized that the two cases are different.
Is this good news for the Democrats? It’s hard to say that Amy Coney Barrett, a Trump-appointed conservative judge, has started working on the Supreme Court. The president hopes that it will help him, but it is not very clear: ACBarrett can distance himself from any issue related to the elections.
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