It should come as absolutely no surprise to anyone at this point that the Republicans are not bothered by a shift to fascism, where the public vote is de-emphasized to the point of irrelevance in a presidential election (unless they win). The Trump plan to win the 2020 election was all Trumped up and thus failed, but they won’t make the same mistake again in 2024. This, of course, explains the importance of moving Trump sympathizers into key positions in state government and utilization of the fact that 12th Amendment to the Constitution allows, in large part, for state legislatures to determine who won, or at least which electors to send.
Former 4th Circuit Federal Appellate Court judge, the powerful J. Michael Luttig, writes in CNN today that the Republicans simply need the Democrats to continue to be afraid of their own shadow in congress (the Democrats could pass a law that would at least make it far more difficult on the Republicans), and a convenient 5-4 ruling from their pet Supreme Court and they could take the vote out of the hands of the people, which the Republicans have long sought to do given the “changing demographics of the country.”
First, 2020 was just a dry run:
From long before Election Day 2020, Trump and Republicans planned to overturn the presidential election by exploiting the Electors and Elections Clauses of the Constitution, the Electoral College, the Electoral Count Act of 1877, and the 12th Amendment, if Trump lost the popular and Electoral College vote.
The cornerstone of the plan was to have the Supreme Court embrace the little known “independent state legislature” doctrine, which, in turn, would pave the way for exploitation of the Electoral College process and the Electoral Count Act, and finally for Vice President Mike Pence to reject enough swing state electoral votes to overturn the election using Pence’s ceremonial power under the 12th Amendment and award the presidency to Donald Trump.
Luttig goes on to explain how an “independent state legislature” can send whichever electors it wants and is not bound by the vote in that state. Under the 12th Amendment, a state’s legislature can determine, for whatever reasons, that it is going to go against its own vote and send Trump voters, or DeSantis voters, 2024.
The independent state legislature doctrine says that, under the Elections and the Electors Clauses of the Constitution, state legislatures possess plenary and exclusive power over the conduct of federal presidential elections and the selection of state presidential electors. Not even a state supreme court, let alone other state elections officials, can alter the legislatively written election rules or interfere with the appointment of state electors by the legislatures, under this theory.
In other words, next time that the Republicans scream fraud and rigged, the state legislatures will just take over, and the state supreme courts cannot do a thing, and our U.S. Supreme Court will be more than accomodating.
Making your vote worthless. Have a nice day, and call your Senator if he or she is a Democrat.
Jason Miciak believes a day without learning is a day not lived. He is a political writer, features writer, author, and attorney. He is a Canadian-born dual citizen who spent his teen and college years in the Pacific Northwest and has since lived in seven states. He now enjoys life as a single dad of a young girl, writing from the beaches of the Gulf Coast. He loves crafting his flower pots, cooking, while also studying scientific philosophy, religion, and non-math principles behind quantum mechanics and cosmology. Please feel free to contact for speaking engagements or any concerns.