We have a very serious warning for voters about elections and American democracy and the corrupt U.S. Supreme Court on today’s BradCast. Please tune in and listen! [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]
To quickly summarize my half-hour or so long rant at the top of today show…On Thursday, as discussed on our previous show with legal expert Mark Joseph Stern, the corrupt, radical, illegitimate, not-conservative-in-the-least U.S. Supreme Court used a made-up, phony legal doctrine — the “Major Questions” doctrine — to justify gutting the Environmental Protection Agency’s statutory mandate to protect the environment by regulating climate warming carbon emissions. The so-called doctrine, not found anywhere in the Constitution or historic case law, was made up for use by the Court’s rightwing extremists. They are now about to do something very similar in order to gut federal elections and American democracy as we know it in advance of the 2024 Presidential election.
In their last order of business, before the end of this past year’s term on Thursday, the Court announced that next term they would take up the North Carolina case of Moore v. Harper. The case involves a voter challenge to the state GOP’s newly-drawn U.S. House maps. The NC state Supreme Court agreed the map was an unlawful gerrymander under the state constitution and drew up a fairer map. But North Carolina Republicans sued, charging that state Supreme Court was not allowed, according to the U.S. Constitution, to nix the GOP gerrymander due to the so-called “Independent State Legislature” theory. In short, it’s a made up “doctrine” — not unlike the “Major Questions” doctrine used to justify gutting the EPA — that has been pushed for a number of years by fringe Republicans.
The ISL doctrine cites some lines from the U.S. Constitution to argue that state legislatures and only state legislatures — not Boards of Elections or Secretaries of State or Governors or even state courts or Constitutions or popular ballot initiatives adopted by voters — may dictate how federal elections are run. That is a job solely granted to state legislatures, according to this previously-fringe theory.
It was one of the failed arguments under which Donald Trump supporters tried to claim that emergency pandemic voting rules adopted by state officials (other than the state legislature) were unlawful in 2020. It was also one of the arguments pushed by rightwingers that state legislatures could have simply voted to name Trump electors in states where the voters actually chose Joe Biden’s electors.
The “Independent State Legislature” doctrine has never been granted legitimacy by a majority on the U.S. Supreme Court. But, earlier this year, four of the Court’s six radical Republicans — Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh — called for the Court to examine the issue more closely. They now need just one more vote to recognize this controversial Constitutional claim as “legitimate”, which is why so many in the election law world are freaking out today after SCOTUS announced yesterday that they will hear ‘Moore v. Harper’ next term.
Usually, quite staid UC Irvine law professor Rick Hasen’s argues “It’s hard to overstate the danger” of this case. Vox’s Ian Millhiser describes the “grave threat to US democracy” it presents. You — and elected Democrats(!) — should be freaking out at this point as well. Or, at least, understanding what is about to happen to what is left of our representative “democracy” if this switch gets thrown by the newly emboldened and radicalized Court.
Given the many radical, not-conservative-in-least rulings over the past several weeks by the six far-right extremists on this stolen and packed Court — overturning Roe v. Wade, blocking the ability for states to well-regulate firearms, eroding the separation of church and state, all but gutting Miranda rights, further gutting the Voting Rights Act, and torching the EPA’s ability to regulate deadly carbon pollution — we should all be very concerned about what this Court is likely to do regarding Moore in 2023…in advance of the 2024 Presidential election.
We put the case in full context on today’s BradCast, and detail why its so important to elect enough Democrats this November — love them or hate them — to hold the majority in the House and add enough Democrats to the Senate to finally reform or end the filibuster in order to codify Roe and respond to many of the other matters mentioned above, as well as finally expand SCOTUS to re-legitimize the de-legitimized Trump/McConnell/Roberts Court before they unleash every manner of electoral chaos — and outright “legalized” stolen elections — in advance of 2024.
PLEASE. PAY. ATTENTION. TO. THIS. CASE!
Beyond that red flag warning at the top of today’s show, and before standing down for a few much-needed days off next week, we also catch up on several other news items of note that we’ve had to put off over the past week or so due to Congressional hearings, primary elections, and wholly corrupt Supreme Court opinions. Among them…
- After rightwing activist Ginni Thomas, wife of rightwing activist Justice Clarence Thomas, was revealed to have been deeply involved in Trump’s effort to steal the 2020 election, she was invited to testify to the bipartisan U.S. House Select Committee investigating the January 6, 2021 insurrection. She received much coverage when she announced she would be happy to do so, declaring, “I can’t wait to clear up misconceptions. I look forward to talking to them.†You’ll be shocked to learn that Ginni was lying. This week, her attorney said she will not testify because there is “not…a sufficient basis” for the Committee to interview her under oath.
- A judge in Delaware has found that Dominion Voting Systems has presented sufficient evidence to determine that Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan of Fox “News” may have acted with “actual malice” when causing their Republican propaganda station to broadcast false claims that the voting system vendor helped steal the election for Joe Biden. The judge ruled that the billion dollar defamation suit against Fox may now proceed toward trial.
- Here in California, where we recently reported on the attempt by some Democrats in the state legislature to adopt an insane Internet Voting scheme, we’ve got some good news. After passage in the state Senate, the matter was killed in the state Assembly following critical work by grassroots voting system and cybersecurity experts in opposition and a letter from the Sec. of State opposing the measure as well. But CA Dems keep trying to this, year after year, so watch out for another attempt in future sessions.
- Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report on the heels of SCOTUS gutting the EPA’s ability to regulate carbon emissions amid our deadly climate crisis and much more…
(Snail mail support to “Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028” always welcome too!)
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“Experience has shown that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.†– Thomas Jefferson
Accord:
(Toynbee, Encyclopedia Britannica).
Deja Vu all over again (from a June 24, 2014 post):
(A Cure For Congress & The Supreme Five: Fickle Fecal Transplants).