In a terse, three-sentence written response delivered late Friday afternoon, Dec. 11 the United States Supreme Court rejected the bid by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to hear a case claiming that Texas had been injured by the 2020 election processes of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan and Georgia.
Supreme Court Building. Image courtesy of NPR.
The rejection was nine to zero; meaning that all six conservative justices, including the three appointed by President Donald Trump, refused to hear the case. Their rationale; Texas has no standing to bring the case, all 50 states have authority to run their own elections, and the results of elections conducted in states such as Pennsylvania do not injure Texans.
The response effectively shuts down the efforts by Trump, his supporters and Republican loyalists to reverse the outcome of the 2020 election; an election in which President-elect Joe Biden won the popular vote by more than eight million votes, and garnered 306 electoral votes; far past the required 270 to clinch the election.
The case gained public traction when the Attorneys General of 17 Republican-led states joined it. Trump jumped in to ask to be added to the case, and no less than two renegade groups declaring themselves to be “New California’ and ‘New Nevada” added themselves to the case.
When Trump demanded loyalty support from congressional Republicans, 107 of them actually signed on, including some in states like Pennsylvania whose own re-elections could be invalidated if their state’s election were declared invalid.
As soon as the case was filed, legal experts said that it had no chance of success, calling it frivolous and sloppily-prepared. But the fact that it was brought at all, that Trump continues with the delusion that he can somehow undo the will of the American people, and that so many elected Republicans have now announced that their loyalty is to party — over country or constitution — is a warning.
Meanwhile, the Electoral College will meet next week to certify the election and they have indicated that they will represent the will of the people. If this were a TV show, one wonders what the ratings would be.
Jan’s noting of the satire and irony of Jeff’s comment is to me especially important for at least one reason I know personally!
I Grew up in the deep south, not the deep state! As a young man I was very heavily dosed wih many attitudes and beliefs that I
later came to understand were based on hatred of other groups of peoples, religious self rightousness, and the us versus them mentality that is so divisive and in my case, disturbing to consider in direct conflict with the tenants of the southern baptist church i was indoctrinated to. As a result, as I reflect today at nearly 70 years of age, I AM SERIOUSLY CONFLICTED as a democrat with actually conservative values in the sense of patriotism, social fabric as a good thing (caring about others) and defense of personal freedoms.
How ironic that the conservative party tries to commandeer the use of personal freedoms which they constantly deny to others, ie. abortion rights or a woman’s right to choose, racial equality, gender equality and opportunity, on and on…ad nauseum.
The point I was going for was that many people, myself included don’t understand references in what we read if it is obscure, nebulous, and as Jan pointed out, satirical and ironic. I feel I was very poorly educated with regard to reading and writing (poor grammar self evident here, but please don’t be too distracted by my poor writing skills and miss the point. I learned to read in grad school (to a degree, no pun intended) and as a prolific reader of Sci-fi as a teen and young man I did self-instruct with a Webster’s dictionary enough to grasp some nuances of content-intent.
So, for many poor (pity) readers it is very difficult to change any of their biases and prejudices unless the writer explains the use of big words, catch phrases, and other less common expressions and references, much less satire and irony.
Sorry to walk you down my personal path of development but if someone relates to it, maybe it supports some Free thinking! I don”t get paid for it for good reason. Jan should get paid well for her obvious courage to speak truth to power! thanks Jan
Your words are appreciated. Journalists are notoriously underpaid normally, and the entire reporting staff of AVV worked for three months this summer unpaid, when we lost most of our advertising and our support funding due to the impact of COVID-19. We’re not well funded right now either, but we keep on because we truly believe in our mission and believe our readers need fact-based journalism; whether they agree with it our not.
It is now undeniable that the US court system, up to and including the Supreme Court, is part of the deep-state conspiracy against DJT. What other explanation can there possibly be for Team Trumps continuing losses in courts everywhere? It certainly can’t be because everything Team Trump says is a lie, and that lies generally don’t work in court. It’s gotta be a deep-state conspiracy, I tell you!
Editor’s note: Ark Valley Voice is accepting this comment as satirical irony. There was absolutely no evidence of voter fraud in the 2020 election, or at any level of our election system, as U.S Attorney General William Barr affirmed. The more than 50 rulings in our courts at every level confirm that our judicial system is holding against an unprecedented deluge of ill-formed and false claims.