Next On the Supreme Court’s Kill List: Democratic Presidential Elections
As if the Electoral College weren’t antidemocratic enough already, the Supreme Court now looks poised to rule in favor of state legislatures deciding the outcome of the presidential election. That’s good news for Republicans and bad news for democracy.
Amy Coney Barrett talks with Clarence Thomas during her swearing-in ceremony to be US Supreme Court associate justice on the South Lawn of the White House on October 26, 2020, in Washington, DC. (Tasos Katopodis / Getty Images)
In 2022, it’s time to update the old truism and acknowledge that three things in life are certain: death, taxes, and bad news from the Supreme Court.
It’s gotten difficult to keep track of all of the court’s assaults on freedom and democracy, but just this year the court has ruled against abortion rights, gun control, separation of church and state, and the ability of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate carbon emissions. The court also attacked the Fifth Amendment, eliminating people’s ability to sue police officers who violate their right to an attorney, and the Fourth Amendment, ruling that in at least some cases, law enforcement itself, rather than courts, may review whether officers committed an unreasonable search.
Given the court’s all-out assault this spring and summer, it’s understandable that a case it agreed to hear in its next session has so far flown under the radar. But the court’s decision in Moore v. Harper is likely to be even more consequential in its long campaign against democracy. Worse, it could easily set the country up for a serious and potentially violent political crisis following the 2024 presidential election.
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