WaPo: As expected, the Supreme Court refused Monday to fast-track a batch of challenges to the presidential election filed by President Trump and his allies.The rejections came without comment or noted dissent, and were formal notifications of what already had become … Continue reading
Category Archives: Supreme Court
The Court’s order list is here. Here’s an earlier explanation from the Philanthropy Roundtable: For those following donor-privacy issues, there was an important development in the case known as Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Becerra in mid-December. The current status of this litigation is … Continue reading
Can’t make this stuff up: ⚖️NEW: For the second time in two days, Trump files a SCOTUS petition re: Biden's win in WISCONSIN. Trump campaign notes that the suit's dismissal in federal appeals court was not based on the merits … Continue reading
The opposition also says this: The Trump Campaign threatens that “if this matter is not timely resolved, not only Petitioner, but the Nation as a whole may suffer injury from the resulting confusion.” Motion at 5. But it is the … Continue reading
Derek at Law & Liberty: The Electoral College is a designedly decentralized process for the selection of the President of the United States. Each State may choose its presidential electors in the manner that the legislature deems appropriate.The State of … Continue reading
John Eastman should be ashamed of this petition for cert and motion to expedite. I won’t go through all of the ridiculous things here, but this is an attempt to challenge PA Supreme Court cases in October and mid-November. There … Continue reading
In an unsigned (per curiam) order over 3 dissents, the Supreme Court has bounced a case back to a lower court that challenged a Trump Administration plan to exclude certain non-citizens from the census count used to apportion seats among … Continue reading
Detroit Free Press: A long-shot legal effort relying on conspiracy theories and inaccurate analyses to argue President Donald Trump actually won Michigan included additional blatantly false information in a new filing with the U.S. Supreme Court this week. The legal team, including attorney Sidney Powell, told the … Continue reading
Philanthropy Roundtable: For those following donor-privacy issues, there was an important development in the case known as Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Becerra in mid-December. The current status of this litigation is that the plaintiffs have petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the case … Continue reading
David Lat blogs on the “sort of” question. … Continue reading
Detroit Free Press: State officials are disputing a report on Antrim County’s voting equipment — signed by a consultant who confused Michigan and Minnesota voting districts in an earlier election analysis — that says the county’s equipment “is intentionally and purposefully designed with … Continue reading
This is great news. No noted, dissents, and Justice Gorsuch did not participate (perhaps he dealt with the case earlier on the 10th Circuit). In my book Election Meltdown, I talked about how the trial in the case was the … Continue reading
Jay Willis in The Atlantic. … Continue reading
The following is a guest post by Ned Foley, on the 20th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Bush v. Gore: On the evening before the twentieth anniversary of Bush v. Gore, one of the most infamous Supreme Court … Continue reading
Howard Bashman: Thanks to everyone who has taken time to respond to my tweet from last night seeking views on whether yesterday evening’s U.S. Supreme Court order was unanimous in rejecting Texas’ effort to overturn the outcome of the 2020 presidential election or was instead … Continue reading
The Supreme Court dismissed Texas’s bill of complaint in the latest high-profile case pushed by Trump allies in an attempt to overturn the results of the election. The Court did not issue an accompanying opinion. [Addendum: The court did say … Continue reading
Tom Goldstein at SCOTUSblog: Texas’ attempt to bring an original action challenging the election results in four states is not a serious legal claim in a legitimate procedural posture, for reasons that many people have already given and that I will not … Continue reading
NYT: In blistering language denouncing Republican efforts to subvert the election, the attorneys general for Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Georgia asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to reject a lawsuit that seeks to overturn the victories in those states by President-elect Joseph … Continue reading
WaPo: With his legal options dwindling and time running out before a key electoral college deadline, President Trump on Thursday ramped up pressure on the Supreme Court to help overturn Joe Biden’s victory, gaining the support of more than 100 … Continue reading
WaPo: A majority of House Republicans have signed onto an amicus brief in a Texas lawsuit seeking unprecedented judicial intervention in disallowing millions of votes and the election results from four key swing states that went for President-elect Joe Biden.Rep. … Continue reading
Read it here. … Continue reading
From the filing: Since Election Day, State and Federal courts throughout the country have been flooded with frivolous lawsuits aimed at disenfranchising large swaths of voters and undermining the legitimacy of the election. The State of Texas has now added … Continue reading
The Court in Carney v. Adams found that the plaintiff lacked standing because he was not ready and able to serve as a judge. … Continue reading
Lisa Manheim in WaPo: The litigation is legally incoherent, factually untethered and based on theories of remedy that fundamentally misunderstand the electoral process. At the core, it is an uninspired retread of the many state-level claims that already have imploded since Nov. … Continue reading
The Justices will not be amused: So the John Eastman brief for Trump was ghost-written by the guy who drafted Texas's brief that the Eastman brief supports?Oh my.The Supreme Court will not appreciate the sock-puppetry, especially in a case with … Continue reading
Ilya Somin at Volokh: Yesterday, the state of Texas filed a lawsuit essentially asking the Supreme Court to reverse the outcome of the presidential election in four key swing states—Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, thereby potentially giving Donald Trump a … Continue reading
I raise this as a question, as I am not an expert in judicial ethics. But I did think (and argued) that Justice Barrett should recuse in any Trump-related election litigation. Trump was not a party in the ridiculous Kelly … Continue reading
Here’s the docket. [corrected link] Trump tweeted that he’s intervened and sought to distance himself from the unanimous loss at the Supreme Court yesterday by Rep. Kelly. I explained here and to the NY Times why the Texas lawsuit will … Continue reading
Adam Liptak for the NYT: The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused a long-shot request from Pennsylvania Republicans to overturn Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory in the state, delivering an unmistakable rebuke to President Trump in the forum on which he … Continue reading
Justice Alito referred it to the whole Court. Earlier: Perhaps the Dumbest Argument Ever Made in Emergency Petition to the Supreme Court Appears in Pennsylvania Election Case Anyone who thought that the Supreme Court was going to save Trump in … Continue reading
I may need to take back what I said about Rep. Kelly’s PA suit being the dumbest case I’ve ever seen filed on an emergency basis at the Supreme Court. This new one from the indicted Texas AG Ken Paxton … Continue reading
You can find the brief here. It begins: Petitioners ask this Court to undertake one of the most dramatic, disruptiveinvocations of judicial power in the history of the Republic. No court has ever issued an order nullifying a governor’s certification … Continue reading
This brief is so interesting. It does not even address the main argument made in Rep. Kelly’s brief that the PA Legislature acted unconstitutionally in passing its absentee voting law. I’ve explained it’s a nonsense argument, but it’s the one … Continue reading
This brief will get attention at the Court. See especially the discussion at pages 9-11. … Continue reading
Via Bob Barnes, comes news that Justice Alito had moved the date for the response to Rep. Kelly’s request for emergency relief from Dec. 9 to Dec. 8. I had noted in an earlier post that Justice Alito had initially … Continue reading
The Court had invited the views of the Solicitor General about whether or not it should take the case, and now the office has filed this brief. It would not surprise me to see the Biden Administration taking a contrary … Continue reading
Philadelphia Inquirer: If its fate had not been abundantly clear already, President Donald Trump’s dream of having Pennsylvania’s GOP-controlled legislature overturn the state’s election results received what appeared to be its final death blows Thursday with a late-night order from … Continue reading
Although it is not yet reflected on the docket, Justice Alito has reportedly set a deadline of December 9 for the state of PA to respond to Rep. Kelly’s petition seeking to nullify the vote in Pennsylvania (a petition I … Continue reading
From the opposition to the stay request filed in the PA Supreme Court: Once again, Petitioners are asking the courts to take expedited action in response to an emergency of Petitioners’ own making. This Court dismissed the Petition for Review … Continue reading
You can find the 29-page opinion at this link (via WRAL). The opinion leans heavily on the Supreme Court’s use of a presumption of legislative good faith in Abbott, despite an earlier history of racially discriminatory conduct. I recently wrote … Continue reading
Vik Amar has posted this draft on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In the weeks leading up to and following Election Day 2020, Republican litigants, taking cues from a minority group of Justices, asked federal courts to undo state election … Continue reading
Michael Wines for the NYT: On Monday, the Supreme Court heard arguments on a question that goes to the heart of American democracy: Must the government count everyone living in the country, citizens or not, in the census totals that … Continue reading
PA Brief. PA Dems’ Brief. This is the case involving the PA Supreme Court’s decision to accept ballots arriving up to three days after election day. PA Republicans claim this violates the right of the state legislature to set the … Continue reading
Adam Liptak for the NYT: A skeptical Supreme Court on Monday reacted with frustration and some confusion to President Trump’s plan to exclude unauthorized immigrants from the calculations used to allocate seats in the House.While there was some discussion about whether the … Continue reading
In progress here. … Continue reading
David Gans for Slate. … Continue reading
Bloomberg Law: President-elect Joe Biden’s top lawyer at the Supreme Court may have no choice but to change the government’s position in an election dispute out of Arizona, the sort of pivot that is awkward for lawyers and irritates the … Continue reading
I have written this piece for the NY Times. It begins: Even as the campaign lawsuits brought by President Trump over the 2020 election enter their death throes, many people continue to worry that Mr. Trump will find three Republican legislatures … Continue reading
Bob Barnes for WaPo: Has the Supreme Court hit the pause button on all things President Trump?The justices for more than three weeks have been holding on to the president’s last-ditch plea to shield his private financial records from Manhattan’s … Continue reading
This is not a surprise at all and I was always mystified by anyone who thought this Court would agree to hear a campaign finance case to make things more regulatory. The trend is decidedly in the opposite direction. … Continue reading