CNN reports that a Michigan judge denied a GOP lawsuit that sought to block certification of the state’s vote, which was won by Biden. If the vote were not certified, it would have discounted the people’s choice. The lawsuit was an attack on democracy. Fortunately the judge rejected it.
“It would be an unprecedented exercise of judicial activism for this Court to stop the certification process of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers,” wrote Chief Judge Timothy Kenny.
Attorney David Fink, representing Detroit, said at a hearing Wednesday that blocking the finalization of Michigan’s votes would either knock the state out of the Electoral College, kicking the selection of the president to the US House of Representatives, or would allow the Republican-held state legislature to try to seat its own slate of electors.
Thank God! Separately, I am heartened to see that Dr. Jill Biden in an NEA member!
The Michigan Republican legislature is well known for ignoring and overruling the will of Michigan voters. They have blocked the gerrymandering initiative passes by voters and played games with the marijuana law. The only vote that matters is the one that supports their issues.
Very scary. No doubt to be appealed all the way up to the Supreme Court Trump controls.
I do not think there is any evidence that Trump controls the Supreme Court even with six justices appointed by conservative presidents.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-litigation-win-factbox/factbox-u-s-supreme-court-rules-against-trump-as-legal-battles-over-election-continue-idUSKBN27E1HY
We will have to wait and see, but one big factor is Trump is a fascist and not a conservative. Of the six conservative justices, he only appointed three, and Kavanagh has been voting with Roberts more than 90-percent of the time.
Once approved by the Senate and seated, history shows that most justices become very independent. They cannot be fired. Their position is for life. Unless Trump has some sort of blackmail over one or more justices, they are not going to rubber-stamp what he wants.
https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/10/30/1011512/five-supreme-court-rulings-that-signal-what-to-expect-next/
Good for the Judge.
Guess the dump only knows how to sue when he’s big butt is against the wall.
So glad I don’t live in Michigan any more.
Trump &Cump’s position: judicial activism is OK for me, not for thee.
7 cases in PA got tossed out as well as 1 in AZ. The record of cases: 1 – 19. I am not sure how many are left in the system.
Great, the Trumplican Party is falling flat on its face. The GOP deserves to go out of existence, it is beyond redemption.
Side note: Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman who mocked right wing jerk Dan Patrick, LG of Texas, is a rising star in PA. Fetterman is 6′ 8″, he recently lost 150 pounds but is still an imposing figure. He’s a Bernie supporter and a self-described democratic socialist with many progressive ideas. I hope he makes it to the US congress someday.
I looked Fetterman up. He sounds like an interesting guy. He once helped young people get their GED. Instead of living in the lieutenant governor’s official home, he lives above a car dealership.
Projected Electoral College
Joe Biden 306
Don Trump 232
🤔😮😁
The CNN article details positions of the Detroit attorney. All of the points he made were so obvious that only a judge without any scruples could have ruled any other way. Many of the complaints were filed after the election but were alleged before the actual in-person voting day. The failure of poll watchers to come forward at the time of the “offense” undermines the complaint. Why were these complaints not brought in a timely manner?
The answer is simple. Republicians knew the urban areas were going to clobber them. Their plan was and is to sow distrust of the voting system among their base. This will keep the base angry and focused for the mid-terms in two years. All of the posturing we see across the country is to sow discontent with the opposition in anticipation of future political battles.
The problem with this is that it divides the electorate in a way that undermines the electoral process altogether. This body politic has weathered many storms. Some of them are very recent. My cousin, who grew up in Brooklyn, remembered Tammany Hall practices still lingering around in the 30s. A vote would get you a dollar. Further back, Jacksonian voters swarmed about polling places for weeks, voting for Jackson again and again.
Modern problems with keeping voting pristine pale by comparison to these historical examples, but it is in the best interests of some in our body politic to keep the electorate distrustful. If you are in that group, or if you are following that group, you are helping to salt the earth that grows democratic principles.
There will always be those who try to subvert the system. Madison knew that when he organized the dispersal of powers in his proposed constitution. Further dispersal of powers had to be enacted before the state’s would agree to join this experiment. These people were dreadfully jealous of their own position in power. Large states like Virginia had to be persuaded to give up power to small states like Deleware. Territories were given up to the federal government. Compromise produced the United States.
Today, we cannot even come to a simple, logical solution to a voting problem. Take the electoral college for example. Some call for the abolishment of the institution, claiming it gives a Nebraska farmer the vote of many urban dwellers. Understandable, but we could have done something 20 years ago after the Gore-Bush squeaker in Florida that would have made all this lawsuit thing go away. We could easily have enacted a tie breaker in close races. For example, we might have passed the proper legislation to mandate the equal division of electors is states where popular voters were very close. The game would be over, and the country could be beginning its path to peaceful transition of power, the hallmark of stable democracy. But we sat on our hands, and we will surely sit on them this time as well.
The refusal of either party to solve this problem shows that the parties both think that they benefit from an angry voter base. Actually both parties stand to lose a lot. But not as much as we do, the people. We stand to lose our republic, even as Rome lost theirs.