Posted on 09/20/2020 9:34:44 AM PDT by rey
If the senate does not seat another justice on the supreme court and there is another contested election and the court splits evenly on who should be president, does the speaker of the house take over?
The USSC decides legal issues.
They do not ‘pick’ the president.
I thought a SC tie means the lower court ruling stands.
The House would select POTUS
There no doubt will be legal issues that will have to be settled. 4-4 is just a recipe for disaster.
Contested elections are at the state level. If a state lets it drag on for too long, there are one of two possibilities:
There is nothing for a court to do. The Electors will either be there or not; the Electoral College will Constitutionally function with or without them.
In Florida in 2000, the election hadn't progressed to the contested part because the results weren't certified when SCOTUS stepped in to stop the unconstitutional partial recount. The Florida legislature was ready to intervene with option #1 above when the court stopped the recount.
-PJ
-PJ
In general when the Supreme Court cannot come to a decision, the lower court’s ruling stands..
Here's How The Supreme Court Will Function With Eight Justices Leading Up To The Election, by Zoe Tillman, BuzzFeed News, September 18, 2020.
In summary, it says the court will try hard to avoid a tie, that there are five conservative justices and three liberal justices, but Roberts isn't always a reliable conservative vote. In ordinary cases, they can postpone a decision until the ninth justice is seated. But it dodges the central question.
One particular item of note: "...there are more than 300 election-related cases pending in state and federal courts."
I realize the Supreme Court does not choose the president but they essentially did in Gore v. Bush. That is the situation I refer to.
Almost no matter the election result, it is going before the court and a split court is a mess.
I wouldn’t assume that whoever Trump appoints, if someone ends up getting appointed, will automatically rule in favor of Trump including in election matters. We have seen cases where Trump judges go out of their way to show how “unbiased” they are. That could well be the case with the newest justice too, especially if she goes through an acrimonious process.
One thing is sure - one sees almost no talk of a “Trump landslide” any more. It seems this board in 2020 is more sober-minded and realistic of Trump’s chances than it was in 2008 of McCain’s chances.
Roberts is compromised/blackmailed. If his handlers don’t care about a case he can vote conservative. If they care, and they absolutely would in this case, he’d side with the liberals.
He should resign.
“SCOTUS stepped in to stop the unconstitutional partial recount”
Which is going to happen again this time around only on steroids. I will be surprised if there is only one state where SCOTUS will need to step in and stop some Florida-type shenanigans.
Which House? The current 116th Congress or the incoming 117th?
Oh, this won’t happen! After all, the GOP has made the majority of the appointments of the sitting justices - starting with that stalwart of conservative readings of our Constitution, Chief Justice Roberts.
At this early point, It looks like The President will nominate someone who can get appointed quickly, someone who has recently been appointed to a federal position by this same senate, for instance, and any republican senator who will not vote the same way will be in fact trying to throw this nation-saving election to the despotic Harris and company. That would be a spot too tough to get out of for the perpetual Trump-underestimating Romney
Another obvious point to consider is Trump is not a wimpy republican. He will not in any way attempt to appease the left. He will nominate someone this week.
“ The USSC decides legal issues.
They do not ‘pick’ the president.“
The democrats have manipulated that
If it’s 4-4, then Al Gore becomes acting president.
Not really. Bush had already been declared the winner. Gore's suit was over his wanting to hand-pick two or three counties in Florida favorable to him, in which to conduct recounts, to see if he could get enough new votes to change the result of the election. The Supreme Court's decision ended the recounts that had been going on, and Bush's victory was upheld. You can't hand an election to someone who has already won it legitimately.
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