The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to give it a green light to implement its attack on mail in voting.
Sort of.
The argument is a lot more circular than that. It says the agencies, the U.S. Postal Service and Homeland Security, have not issued final rules on Trump’s executive order so states and voting advocates have no standing to challenge the rules. Yet.
From Amy Howe and SCOTUS Blog:
“Trump signed the executive order at the center of the case, titled “Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections” on March 31 of this year. Among other things, the order instructs the U.S. Postal Service to propose rules for mail-in and absentee ballots, and it directs the Department of Homeland Security to compile “state citizenship lists” – lists of individuals in each state who are U.S. citizens over the age of 18. Under the order, the rules issued by the USPS must provide that the Postal Service can only send mail-in ballots to voters whose names appear on the state citizenship lists.
“A group of 23 states and the District of Columbia, led by California, went to federal court in Massachusetts to challenge the implementation of the order. They argued that the order conflicts with provisions in the Constitution that give states the power to determine voter eligibility and to set the “Times, Places, and Manner” of holding congressional elections.”
But here’s the thing. The “deadline” in Trump World’s mind is mid-August. So there would be not enough time to challenge the rules after their issued and finalized. (The Post Office has proposed a rule, pending comments and Homeland Security has only tossed ideas around.)
And, this is good, the Supreme Court should give its blessing because: “The injunction irreparably and impermissibly impedes the President’s ability to oversee the Executive Branch. “[T]he Framers decided to vest ‘[t]he executive Power’ in one person—‘a President of the United States of America,’” the filing says. “The President therefore has the sole “constitutional obligation ‘to take care that the laws be faithfully executed.’”
Except in elections, it’s the states with the constitutional obligation, not the president.
Here’s the thing: In a little more than a month from now, ten states will begin mailing ballots. Another 13 states mail ballots 45 days before the election.
The Trump administration’s legal filing hits this point:
“This premature injunction imposes serious irreparable harm on the federal government. Even if the agencies’ implementation plans end up being entirely lawful, there is not enough time to obtain ordinary appellate relief from the injunction in order to carry them out before the November election, especially given that any such plans will need to be implemented well before November given the timing of election procedures concerning voter-roll verification and mail voting.”
Remember this is about a process that has not been invented yet. Both the Post Office and Homeland Security are making this up as they go along. (Using lists that are neither vetted nor accurate.)
Then the Trump World point is not working for a better voting mechanism, it’s promoting chaos. Poll after poll shows a wipe out is coming — and Donald Trump cannot stand for that. So every challenge between now and November will be the message that the election process should not be trusted. (That leaves two roads open: Distrust the election or try to cancel it.)
