TheBrennanCenter OP t1_iynqsx6 wrote
Reply to comment by nemoid in We're Tom Wolf,Eliza Sweren-Becker, and Ethan Herenstein. We work on democracy reform at the Brennan Center for Justice. Ask us anything about the Supreme Court’s upcoming case Moore v. Harper and the “independent state legislature” theory. by TheBrennanCenter
Until I gain the power to read minds, I won’t make predictions!
That said, any Supreme Court Justice who tries to write a credible opinion supporting the ISLT is going to struggle mightily to deliver. Under any metric a Justice would use to figure out the right answer in this case–original public meaning, constitutional text, structure, historical practice, precedent, policy, etc.--the answer is: “The ISLT is wrong.”
The ISLT has been able to motor along up to this point because the Court’s been fielding it on its emergency appeals docket (the shadow docket), where there’s basically no context for its decision-making (few briefs, no argument, etc.) and there’s little to no public scrutiny of what they’re up to.
The game’s different now: The Court’s gotten thousands of pages of briefs dropped on it, covering every conceivable angle of the issue. (We summarized them all here: https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/court-cases/annotated-guide-amicus-briefs-moore-v-harper.)) Folks are paying attention to it now. And the Court has experienced significant blowback for its recent opinions on abortion rights and gun control. All these things will put real limits on the Court's room to go the wrong way here.
In short, this case is a winnable one for the anti-ISLT side. - Tom
UltraVires33 t1_iyo3975 wrote
>That said, any Supreme Court Justice who tries to write a credible opinion supporting the ISLT is going to struggle mightily to deliver.
This question is more honest and genuine than it's going to sound: Do you think any justice on the right wing of the Court other than Roberts actually cares much about credibility? Between Thomas, Alito, Kavanaugh, Barrett, and Gorsuch, is there worry that they'll just band together and craft some B.S. to further their policy goals and not really care much about the actual legal merits?
Artisanal_Shitposter t1_iyofdab wrote
In other words, will they do the job they swore an oath to do, or the job they were installed for?
right_there t1_iyqhbb8 wrote
You have to have integrity and honor to keep an oath, so what do you think?
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