It’s a very rare move to say the least. Usually, when a case has been agreed to be heard by the United States Supreme Court, it gets stuck on their calendar for oral arguments, the Justices then research the merits and demerits of the case, and usually by the end of June which is the end of their term, they announce their decision, which has the weight of law. What makes this particular case rare is the fact that the Biden administration is asking the Supreme Court to back out of a case they have already heard the oral arguments for.
That probably isn’t going to happen.
The case involves what is being termed as “Independent State Legislature Theory”. In North Carolina, they are pushing that state justices are not allowed to get involved in elections in any way. Basically that means that they can’t rule on voter eligibility, mail-in ballots, or congressional district lines (redistricting) for federal elections. Only the state legislature would be allowed to weigh in on those things. The North Carolina Supreme Court didn’t like it and struck down the law. But it worked it’s way to the US Supreme Court, who has already heard oral arguments this past December. It’s scheduled to have the decision made by the end of the Court’s term.
The reason the Biden administration is getting involved is, the North Carolina Supreme Court wants to revisit at least some of the dispute, and argues that would negate the US Supreme Court from getting involved because it would be a “state matter” and not a federal matter. By the way, the North Carolina Supreme Court is made up of seven justices, five of whom are Republican, two are Democrats. The North Carolina Statehouse flipped to the GOP back in November.
Now, what all of this REALLY means is that the Biden administration is duly afraid that the current make up of the US Supreme Court (6-3 Conservative) is probably going to side with the North Carolina legislature, and allow states to decide if justices in their state have the right to interfere in federal elections. That would be a HUGE balloon pop for the Democrats who love to challenge every federal loss in court. If the Supreme Court decides to go through with the case, and actually finds for the North Carolina legislature, it could open the door for other states to pass similar bills, which would not allow state judges to weigh in on the matter.
This takes a rather large piece of ammunition out of the Democrats’ playbook if it comes to fruition. So, it does beg the question, why would five of seven Republicans State Supreme Court Justices decide to go against a Republican legislature? Well, it takes a lot of the battles out of the state courts’ hands. And they are thinking that down the road, if the Democrats take over the State House, it could mean that the pendulum would swing the other way with no way the GOP could fight it in a state court. Notice, this is ONLY for federal elections. It doesn’t have anything to do with the state-wide and local elections.
The way I see it, there are way too many lawsuits after elections as it is in this country. What we need is a rock-solid plan to make sure that everyone that is registered to vote can vote…ONCE. We need to take all of the doubt out of whether or not an election has been tampered with. After all, this isn’t China, or Russia, or Venezuela. This is a place where we value free and fair elections. And when the majority of people feel that the election was stolen, or tampered with, or there is some proof that’s been happening, we’ve basically lost control of the country. It’s no longer, “We The People”, it’s “them the party” that controls things.
Here in Arizona, I was surprised to see that 55% of voters in the Grand Canyon State believe that the voting problems that happened here in Maricopa Country in 2022, affected the outcome of the election, both for the Senate race (Mark Kelly over Blake Masters), and the Governor’s Race (Katie Hobbs over Kari Lake). 35% of the those surveyed felt it was very likely to have happened. That’s the doubt that needs to be erased. And if that can be stopped simply by slowing down all of the lawsuits after an election, and allowing the state legislatures to write laws that determine who can vote, how it’s counted, mail-in balloting, ballot harvesting, and drawing the districts, then so much the better.
My hunch is the Supreme Court will follow through with this lawsuit to it’s natural conclusion and not listen to what the Biden administration has to say. I may be wrong, but Joe Biden doesn’t seem to have much sway in convincing these folks in SCOTUS to do his bidding.
Carry on world…you’re dismissed!
The Lone Cactus 
IMO, we have the cart sitting in front of the horse. I recall my grandmother quoting Poor Richard, who advised, “ An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” By the time we get around to petitioning a court to redress election irregularities, it’s already too late. I don’t recall any instances where the rightful winner of an election was restored to office over a fraudulent winner.
I’m thinking about the senatorial election in which Minnesota Communists managed to create a win for Al Franken (a.k.a. Stuart Smalley) when, on election day, Norm Coleman was the clear winner. Note: I have no first-hand knowledge of the theft — I only know that Coleman was leading by 700 votes when precincts closed, but over the next several “recount” months, Smalley won the election by 225 votes. The pound of cure should be that state legislatures tighten electioneering procedures, so there aren’t any questionable irregularities. Look, we’ve been doing this for a long time. Surely we know how to avoid problems in electioneering.
One P.S. I don’t lay this problem at the feet of Democrats. Republicans made the first issue of hanging and pregnant chads in Florida. I cannot now say whether Bush was any better than Gore. They’re all “birds of a feather.”
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You raise an interesting set of questions. And to be sure, I think the only thing that having Gore as president after 2000 would be that you would have had a bunch of AOC’s running around a LOT earlier than what we have today!
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Why aren’t democrats supporting voter integrity efforts of republicans ? They label such efforts racist and suppressing the vote of minorities. Huh ? Seems to me they don’t want voter integrity so they can cheat. Their claim that some people can’t get an ID is nonsense. Go to any republican or democrat headquarters and tell them you want to vote and they will help you get an ID and even sign you up to get a ride to the polls. Homeless ? Many shelters allow homeless to use the facility as a legal address and they also help get an ID. Vets can easliy get an ID with picture if they are registered in the VA system.
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And that’s exactly why an intelligent person such as yourself, would come to the same conclusion you have. Democrats want to have the ability to change the election after the fact if they lose, so they can cheat and call the other guy “racist”. It’s not about politics any more. It’s all about wokeism.
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