The Supreme Court on Monday rejected the last of former President Donald Trump’s election challenges.
The court turned away the case in which Trump questioned Wisconsin election procedures in an unsigned order. The decision marks the end of a flood of litigation appealed to the high court after Trump lost the 2020 election to President Biden. Trump, throughout his final days in office, frequently lashed out at the Supreme Court, calling the body “totally incompetent” when it turned away his other appeals.
When the court pushed off consideration of all election litigation until after Biden’s inauguration, it signaled that it would not seriously consider Trump’s after-the-fact attempts to tip the election in his favor. And once Biden was in office, it proceeded to throw out most of the major cases that Trump and his allies had submitted for consideration.
In one of these, Justice Clarence Thomas issued a rebuke of his colleagues, writing in a dissent that by not considering the cases, the court was setting the country up for more confusion surrounding elections.
“These cases provide us with an ideal opportunity to address just what authority non-legislative officials have to set election rules, and to do so well before the next election cycle,” Thomas wrote. “The refusal to do so is inexplicable.”
Thomas added that the lack of timeliness in the cases actually made them more relevant for handling future election disputes. Thomas wrote that because courts are ill-equipped to handle disputes that arise immediately after elections, the court should use these cases to make clear how future elections must be conducted before they happen.
“By doing nothing, we invite further confusion and erosion of voter confidence,” he wrote.
Justices Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito also protested the court’s decision not to hear the cases in a separate dissent.
Author: Nicholas Rowan, Staff Writer
Source: Washington Examiner : Supreme Court rejects final Trump election challenge
