The Supreme Court deadline for a response from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to the lawsuit filed by U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly was today. The first paragraph of the response is significant:
Kelly’s lawsuit was rejected by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. The Supreme Court vacated a Commonwealth Court’s order preliminarily enjoining the Commonwealth from taking any further action regarding the certification of the results of the 2020 election.
The reasoning by the Supreme Court was not based on the merits of the suit, but rather on the doctrine of laches. That basically means they should have filed this before the election. One of the Justices, Chief Justice Saylor, filed a concurring and dissenting statement. He agreed that the court should not issue an injunctive relief restraining certification of the election. But then he went on to admit there are relevant substantial challenges regarding the constitutional validity of the new mail in voting scheme.
He also specifically said that “laches and prejudice” can never be permitted to amend the Constitution.
So far, no court has been willing to overturn the results of this election. That does not mean they did not find serious concerns, but rather that they don’t want to “disenfranchise voters.” This pattern has been consistent with all the court hearings. The courts are terrified of overturning an election.
It would be naïve to think that the Supreme Court would be any different. But it would also be naïve to think they are not very concerned about the numerous and substantial allegations of systemic fraud.
The Pennsylvania Commonwealth lawyers make the same argument. That no court has ever issued an order nullifying a governor’s certification of presidential election results. They basically warn the Supreme Court that if they do this, the result would be a total loss of public trust in our constitutional order. But one could argue that this is exactly why the Supreme Court should act. There already is a lack of trust in this election, there is substance evidence of systemic fraud and failure to act disenfranchises those voters who did not cheat.
I still think the safest decision for the Supreme Court would be to issue an injunction and delegate the responsibility for determining the results of the election to the state legislature. That is, after all, what the constitution requires.
This is clearly a very important and high-risk decision for the Supreme Court. If Justice Roberts were still in control, the court would almost certainly punt. But Justice Roberts no longer controls this court, it appears to be Justice Clarence Thomas. We saw the first example of the Thomas court recently when they not only blocked the restrictions on religious freedom imposed by Governor Cuomo in New York, they vacated the decision approving these restrictions imposed by Governor Newsom in California. The current court, with the replacement of Justice Ginsburg by Justice Barrett cannot be predicted. It is important to know why the court under Roberts made the decision to not block this action by Cuomo because he said it was not necessary for the Supreme Court to rule on such a serious and difficult question. In the Supreme Court opinion overturning that, Justice Gorsuch wrote something very interesting:
20A87 Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn v. Cuomo (11/25/2020) (supremecourt.gov)
“I can only surmise that much of the answer lies in a particular judicial impulse to stay out of the way in times of crisis. But if that impulse may be understandable or even admirable in other circumstances, we may not shelter in place when the Constitution is under attack. Things never go well when we do.”
We will soon know. The evidence of systemic fraud is obvious to everyone, except the MSM who pretends to be the sole source of authority regarding this election. One must assume that the Supreme Court justices are aware of this. The question is when is enough enough? Will the Supreme Court “shelter in place” or act because the Constitution is under attack? If Ginsburg were on this court, with Roberts in charge, the answer would obviously be to shelter in place. But, while Roberts remains Chief Justice, he still only gets one vote. Hold your breath.
TDM