27th June 2023, 6:33 PM
What a wonderful day! Okay, it's not wonderful out, we're still in that permanent cloudbank that seems to have been overhead for most of the past few months. For a while Maine was protected from the worst of the Canadian wildfire smoke by a storm off to our east, but it's not anymore.
But politically, it sure is wonderful, because the Supreme Court explicitly rejected Moore v. Harper's incredibly dangerous independent state legislature theory. In a 6 to 3 ruling the Supreme Court solidly opposed ISL as a theory. Considering how incredibly dangerous ISL is as a theory, particularly with how it could allow a state legislature to overturn the results of an election they don't like with zero oversight, this is fantastic, fantastic news. Roberts got two of Trump's appointees to support keeping the status quo on elections, again going against a past opinion of his in the name of opposing this highly destructive theory that would totally upend our election system.
This decision pretty much stops this avenue for the destruction of our democracy. Republicans may try some new avenue for their goal of continuing their extreme anti-democratic (small d, not big d) and pro-authoritarian agenda, but this is a big win against that. Of course, Roberts also did it out of self-interest, since this would be surrendering his own branchs' power to the legislative branch, and likely also to keep the people from hating the supreme court even more after their abortion decision, but regardless of the reason the effect is to keep the system as it is: imperfect, but democratic.
But politically, it sure is wonderful, because the Supreme Court explicitly rejected Moore v. Harper's incredibly dangerous independent state legislature theory. In a 6 to 3 ruling the Supreme Court solidly opposed ISL as a theory. Considering how incredibly dangerous ISL is as a theory, particularly with how it could allow a state legislature to overturn the results of an election they don't like with zero oversight, this is fantastic, fantastic news. Roberts got two of Trump's appointees to support keeping the status quo on elections, again going against a past opinion of his in the name of opposing this highly destructive theory that would totally upend our election system.
This decision pretty much stops this avenue for the destruction of our democracy. Republicans may try some new avenue for their goal of continuing their extreme anti-democratic (small d, not big d) and pro-authoritarian agenda, but this is a big win against that. Of course, Roberts also did it out of self-interest, since this would be surrendering his own branchs' power to the legislative branch, and likely also to keep the people from hating the supreme court even more after their abortion decision, but regardless of the reason the effect is to keep the system as it is: imperfect, but democratic.