All right, folks. ⚖️
I take a bit longer with the chewier topics, but the result is *never* just a summary of proceedings.
Today's piece on SCOTUS oral arguments in Trump v. Anderson strives to explain the core tensions, propositions, and potential implications of different outcomes.
The short version: Today's oral arguments were weak on textual grounds--but that just means this right-wing SCOTUS has a delicate needle to thread, to achieve its expected ends coherently.
https://onlysky.media/mclark/scotus-trump-and-the-14th-amendment-election-case/
@MLClark I had expected someone to raise the question distinguishing between a primary ballot and a general election ballot. A primary ballot is for a political party to choose its candidate; the laws vary by state, but they're mostly "closed" meaning it's a private affair.
If a party chooses to nominate an ineligible candidate, is that anyone else's business? That ineligibility would only become important during the general election.
But it didn't come up, so far as I know.
Yep! I mentioned that in my preamble, with respect to the question of private vs. states rights that could have been presented, but wasn't.
A lot of the petition was carefully avoiding other possible lines of inquiry - making for a flimsy case, but also one that couldn't be diverted from the core target.
Oof. More taxing business in your life. It's a wonder you've managed the serenity you have! :) Or maybe they're related? From the chaos, comes the calm?
The way this case was put together in the petition and Amici, it's *super* clear that they went lean because they didn't want to create variability in an outcome, and room for more cases. They want a top-down ruling that will affect all others at once.
Whether they get their wish... is not up to us! 🤷♀️
@MLClark I've mentioned before that we were one plaintiff in Duke et al v. Smith, a 1992 Florida case. The judge basically concluded that a party decides who it wants to be its candidates. We didn't have the money or time to appeal it and it was a state case, not federal.
https://casetext.com/case/duke-v-smith-2