April 9, 2020
By Linda Greenhouse
The Supreme Court (click here) just met its first test of the coronavirus era. It failed, spectacularly.
I was hoping not to have to write those sentences. All day Monday, I kept refreshing my computer’s link to the court’s website.
I was anxious to see how the justices would respond to the urgent request from the Republican National Committee and Wisconsin’s Republican-controlled Legislature to stop the state from counting absentee ballots postmarked not by Tuesday’s election but during the following few days.
A federal district judge, noting that Wisconsin’s election apparatus was overwhelmed by the “avalanche of absentee ballots” sought by voters afraid to show up at crowded polling places, had ordered the extra time last Thursday, with the full support of the state’s election officials. Was I the only one left in suspense on Monday, holding out hope that the five Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices would put partisanship aside and let the District Court order stand?
In early evening, the answer landed with a thud. No, they would not.
In more than four decades of studying and writing about the Supreme Court, I’ve seen a lot (and yes, I’m thinking of Bush v. Gore). But I’ve rarely seen a development as disheartening as this one: a squirrelly, intellectually dishonest lecture in the form of an unsigned majority opinion, addressed to the four dissenting justices (Need I name them? Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan), about how “this court has repeatedly emphasized that lower federal courts should ordinarily not alter the election rules on the eve of an election.”
Yes, the Supreme Court was absolutely myopic with their heads in the academic clouds by five of the conservative judges; but; don't' lose sight of the sincere evil within the Republican Party.
By Garrett Eps
...In Wisconsin, (click here) the Democratic governor called a special session to consider a delay; the Republican legislative majority refused even to convene. They calculated that a lower turnout would be good for them, and walked away from their duty to the voters. Applications for absentee ballots surged—an understandable response to the looming danger at the polls—until the numbers overwhelmed state officials.
As of last week, thousands had not yet received their ballot, and so could not mail it to be received by Election Day, April 7. To vote, they would have to risk infection and journey to the polls. A federal district judge found this to be a burden on the right to vote, and ordered the state to accept ballots that arrived by April 13. A federal appeals court approved the order...
This was planned and the Republican Party would not be budged. They were the people that refused to attend to the needs of the people of the State of Wisconsin.
In Congress today, the Republican Party wants to go forward with more funding when they aren't even interested in having an oversight committee in place to monitor the $2.2 trillion for the "CARES" law.
Congress is out of session until Monday. How can McConnell actually expect reasonable people to trust him with more money when the people aren't even sure how the first law was carried out by the Republican executive branch?
The politics in the country are hideous and ridiculous and lack the truth. The people are supposed to be the focus of government, including the Supreme Court, and part of that is the reassurance that their government is working as it is expected.
After this episode of Republican disregard of the people, I have to believe when McConnell embraces the identity of "The Grim Reaper," he really means it.
The people of this country are not at the center of the Republicans currently in government. Wisconsin is proof. And the complete disregard of reality that Americans are facing on election day by the Supreme Court's ruling, allows the declaration of "Robert's Politically Activist Court."
Never in my wildest imagination would I expect a political party to completely disregard the safety of the lives of the American people and their future.
The next spending bill cannot be passed until the oversight is in place and certainly not without making provisions to allow elections to go forward with safety built into the elections of this country when facing dangers to Americans' health.
