There is some speculation that the Supreme Court may hand down a ruling this week on the case from Colorado which will determine whether or not a state can ban Trump from the ballot based upon his ‘alleged’ participation in the insurrection that took place on Jan. 6, 2021 in violation of the Constitution. If I were to place a bet, given the deference SCOTUS seems to be giving Trump and his legal team, they will use some convoluted pretzel logic to argue that such a determination can only be made at the federal level, i.e., it is not up to the states.
If this happens, I find it quite ironic that the Republicans continue to bang the drum of ‘states’ rights’ loud and long and have basically said that the states have sole discretion over how they conduct the presidential election and award electoral college delegates but, in this particular case, they don’t believe in ‘states’ rights’ and want the Federal government to step in and overrule the state of Colorado. Which is it?
This is eerily reminiscent of the Bush v. Gore election in 2000. It all came down to the State of Florida and they were busy counting and re-counting ballots and dealing with ‘hanging chads’ according to the processes that were in place in Florida when the Republicans wanted the Federal government to step in, which SCOTUS did, and basically handed the election to Bush.
One can only conclude that ‘states rights’ is only a good thing if it works to your advantage but when it doesn’t work to your advantage, it is a bad thing and you want the Federal government to step in to help you win the battle you would have otherwise lost.
Gerrymandering is a prime example of this hypocrisy. The Republicans, while banging the drum of states’ rights, want to be able to gerrymander the hell out of their election districts to circumvent and undermine democracy to ensure their preferred party candidates always win. It is called stacking the deck (or election rigging). When those cases are taken up to the Federal government for prosecution and adjudication, the Republicans scream bloody murder about the Federal government interfering with their ‘states rights’ to conduct elections as they like.
One of the first thing authoritarian regimes do is stack the courts in their favor. When you look at the deference SCOTUS has given to Trump, along with the questionable actions of Judge Cannon in Florida, it certainly seems like that process is well underway.
I don’t know what the betting line is on this pending Supreme Court decision, but I would bet that it is going to end up being another gift for Trump and another lump of coal for the country. I don’t know who said that no one is above the law but with all the trial delays and legal gifts given to Trump, it is becoming less and less true.
