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Supreme Court Rejects Fringe Trump-Backed Election Theory – Experts Say ‘Huge Victory for Democracy’ But Only ‘For Now’

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The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a fringe, extremist legal theory that would have removed the ability of state courts to review election laws, including congressional maps, and efferctively would have handed state legislatures the ability to decide presidential elections. The “independent state legislature theory” (ISLT) was backed by Donald Trump and some of his top advisors, who promoted what has been called the “fake electors” scheme.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the 6-3 majority opinion. Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch were in the minority. Justice Samuel Alito would have ruled the case moot.

“Under the theory advanced by North Carolina’s Republican legislative leaders, but rejected by the court, state lawmakers throughout the country would have had exclusive authority to structure federal elections, subject only to intervention by Congress,” The Washington Post reports. “The ‘independent state legislature theory’ holds that the U.S. Constitution gives that power to lawmakers even if it results in extreme partisan voting maps for congressional seats and violates voter protections enshrined in state constitutions.”

The Chief Justice in his opinion wrote that the Elections Clause of the U.S. Constitution “does not carve out an exception to that fundamental principle. When state legislatures prescribe the rules concerning federal elections, they remain subject to the ordinary exercise of state judicial review.”

READ MORE: Jack Smith ‘Likely’ to Indict Trump and the ‘Whole Criminal Gang’ for Conspiring to ‘Overthrow the Government’: Legal Expert

Back in November, U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), a top proponent of reforming the Supreme Court, warned that the “independent state legislature theory formed the basis of many of the bogus legal challenges to the 2020 election results—including the arguments [Trump attorney John] Eastman was pushing about fake electors.”

On Tuesday, after quickly reviewing the decision in the case, known as Moore v. Harper, some legal experts were rejoicing, at least initially.

“SCOTUS rightly rejected the utterly groundless ‘independent state legislature’ theory that would’ve upended democracy and the rule of law. Only Thomas and Gorsuch went with the theory. Alito would’ve treated the case as moot. It’s [time] to exhale now!” remarked Harvard University Professor Emeritus Laurence Tribe, a top constitutional scholar and former Harvard Law School professor of law.

“This is a rout for proponents of the independent state legislature theory,” wrote Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern.

“In my view,” he added, “the decision in Moore is a huge victory for democracy, ensuring that state courts can continue to review election laws enacted by state legislatures under state constitutions, and that federal courts do not have freewheeling power to meddle in state election schemes.”

Meanwhile, legal journalist Cristian Farias warned the ruling means, “State legislatures can’t do whatever they want, and state courts can police them. But … federal judges can decide if state courts went off the rails in policing state legislatures.”

“This means Bush v. Gore could still happen again,” he adds.

READ MORE: On ‘Thousands of Hours’ of Tapes Nixon Never Said Anything ‘As Clearly Illegal’ as Trump in New Audio: Watergate Historian

“So yeah, a win for democracy … for now,” Farias continues. “But the Supreme Court leaves wide open what the standard will be when reviewing a state court ruling that, in its judgment, goes too far.”

“In that sense, Moore v. Harper is a boon to voting rights and election lawyers in coming disputes.”

Election Law Blog, founded by election law expert Rick Hasan, published a reserved interpretation of Tuesday’s ruling, warning that the decision offers “zero concrete guidance on where the boundaries are on state court decision-making.”

“The Court endorsed the view — in exceptionally vague terms — that the Constitution prohibits state courts from ‘transgress[ing’ the ordinary bounds of judicial review when they interpret state constitutions, or it seems, state statutes. The Court makes clear that it is not providing any standard at all — even an attempt at a standard — as to what this means concretely.”

“It’s critical that the rules for elections are clear and specified in advance, including the rules that follow from judicial doctrine. The Court’s decision eliminates the most extreme versions of the ISLT, but we are going to see constant litigation around this issue in the 2024 elections until a more clear sense of the boundaries on state court decision-making.”

 

 

 

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‘Good Chance’ Trump Will Be Electorally ‘Humiliated’ in November: Carville

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Democratic strategist and pundit James Carville, responding to the international outcry and condemnation over President Donald Trump’s failed efforts to acquire Greenland, predicted that he will likely lose big in the November midterm elections.

“I think the world wants to return, with the United States as being part of the world,” Carville said on his podcast. “And I think the way that that happens is Trump has to be humiliated.”

“He has to be electorally humiliated, and I think there’s a good, good chance that’s gonna happen this November in our elections,” he said. “It’s not enough that he just walk away, and the Democrats take over the presidency.”

There has to be “a well laid plan and strategy to utterly humiliate him, to the point that everybody around the world says, ‘This m — —, or no one like this m — —, is gonna ever come back and lead the United States,'” Carville declared.

READ MORE: Trump ‘Miscalculated’ and It ‘Backfired’: Columnist Explains What Led to Trump ‘Failing’

“I think that’s the possibility, and I think if that happens, I think we can renormalize the world a lot faster than most.”

“And he’s completely crazy,” Carville also remarked. “He’s going downhill.”

According to the New York Post, Trump will be campaigning during the midterm elections as if he were on the ballot.

“President Trump will treat the November midterm election like a presidential campaign, his senior leadership team tells The Post — traveling like he’s on the ballot, flooding key races with cash and hammering home how his policies will help Americans with affordability,” the Post reported.

Susie Wiles, Trump’s White House Chief of Staff and his former campaign co-chair, told The Post, “He’s going to campaign like it’s 2024.”

READ MORE: Trump Unleashes Wild Ego-Fueled Social Media Grievance Storm After Davos Defeat

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Trump ‘Miscalculated’ and It ‘Backfired’: Columnist Explains What Led to Trump ‘Failing’

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President Donald Trump “miscalculated” his level of support — especially on the issues that won him re-election in 2024, and it has “backfired,” according to an opinion columnist.

In “Why Trump is failing,” Steven Roberts in the Columbia Missourian writes: “Trump has called 2025 ‘the greatest first year’ of any president, but a majority of Americans strongly disagree.”

“To hardcore MAGA loyalists, the president can do no wrong. But rabid Red Hats account for only about 35% of Americans,” observes Roberts.

He identifies where the president is losing support: “since Trump received almost 50% of the popular vote, that means about 15% of his backers were not true believers, and they are the ones who are slipping away.”

Roberts identifies why.

“The single biggest reason Trump won a second term was economic discontent with the Biden administration, and it’s the single biggest reason so many voters are now disillusioned,” he says, pointing to a CNN poll that, he writes, finds “55% say Trump’s policies have actually made things worse and almost two-thirds say he has not done enough to reduce their cost of living.”

But Roberts offers more.

READ MORE: Trump Unleashes Wild Ego-Fueled Social Media Grievance Storm After Davos Defeat

He explains that Americans supported Trump’s policies on immigration when it was about immigrants at the border.

“They were ‘others’: easy to demonize and dehumanize. They had no voice and no identity, and Trump and his media managers could control what voters knew and felt about them.”

But, he continues, “Trump miscalculated, and his show backfired,” because his targets are no longer “faceless hordes but real people with jobs and families, friends and neighbors.”

The came the shooting of a Minneapolis mother of three, Renee Good.

“The administration tried to brand her as a domestic terrorist who had caused her own demise by driving at the agent. But the videos — seen by more than 80% of Americans — told a different story,” he writes. “Good simply did not look like a terrorist. Plus, independent news organizations analyzed the cellphone footage and concluded that it ‘contradicted’ the official line.”

Trump “lost control of the narrative, and public opinion turned against him.”

The president’s other miscalculation: his stance on the affordability issue, an issue that arguably got him re-elected.

With just 36 percent of Americans saying Trump has the right priorities, Roberts surmises that is simply his “loyal MAGA base.”

And he warns that if this trend continues, voters at the polls in November will “take it out on his party.”

READ MORE: These 19 Democrats May Already Be Jockeying for a Presidential Run: Report

 

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Trump Unleashes Wild Ego-Fueled Social Media Grievance Storm After Davos Defeat

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President Donald Trump on Thursday unleashed dozens of rapid-fire social media posts after what critics described as a difficult few days at Davos. His speech there reportedly further strained relations with U.S. allies, following his Greenland gambit, which produced few if any clear gains and drew criticism over its diplomatic costs. The rollout of Trump’s Board of Peace also struggled to gain traction, with a handful of European allies participating in the inaugural signing ceremony.

In spoke of the more recent posts, Trump went off on “Fake Polls,” while admitting that they have his approval rating “in the low 40s,” although The Economist shows his net approval rating currently at 37%.

“We have the Greatest Economy in the History of our Country, we have the Strongest Border in History, nobody has ever done a job like I have done, and they have me in the low 40s,” he complained. “The Democrats destroyed Healthcare, I’m trying to fix it, and they give me FAKE low numbers. Fake Polls on the Economy, on the Border, on just about everything, are ridiculous and dangerous. The REAL Polls have been GREAT, but they refuse to print them.

“The Times Siena Poll, which is always tremendously negative to me, especially just before the Election of 2024, where I won in a Landslide, will be added to my lawsuit against The Failing New York Times,” he wrote. “Our lawyers have demanded that they keep all Records, and how they ‘computed’ these fake results — Not just the fact that it was heavily skewed toward Democrats. They will be held fully responsible for all of their Radical Left lies and wrongdoing!”

READ MORE: Top Conservative Think Tank Roasted Over ‘Retrograde’ Marriage and Family Report

Some posts promoted questionable claims, including suggesting that annualized U.S. GDP grew to more than 5 percent — while most expectations and Congressional Budget Office predictions are currently about half that number.

He promoted a claim that he “helped create ‘The Martin Luther King Jr International Freedom Games’ in 1966,” when he would have been about 20 years old.

Other posts he promoted talked about the U.S. trade deficit, alleged illegal voting in the 2020 election, immigration, tariffs, globalism, Don Lemon, Supreme Court oral arguments for Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, and one declaring Trump the “greatest President in the world.”

Another post offered the transcript and video of White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller allegedly claiming, and without evidence, that James Comey, Jim Clapper, John Brennan, Lisa Monaco, and President Barack Obama “all conspired and worked together to sabotage, undermine, unravel, and overthrow the United States government and the democratic institutions and structures of this country.”

That post, as Raw Story reported, appeared to be in response to former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s currently ongoing congressional public testimony.

Another post included video of Argentinian President Javier Milei attacking “wokeism” while praising the “Americas.”

READ MORE: These 19 Democrats May Already Be Jockeying for a Presidential Run: Report

 

Image via Reuters 

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