Endgame.
There was never a doubt about the outcome. The only doubts were (a) whether the Court would feel obliged to hear the case before ruling against Texas, on the theory that it has no discretion to reject cases arising out of original jurisdiction, and (b) whether it would issue a lengthy opinion attacking the flaws in Texas’s complaint or just give it the back of its hand. We have our answers: Note that Alito and Thomas thought the Court was required to hear the case but even they “would not grant other relief.” The “other relief” sought by Texas was an injunction to block Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Georgia from awarding their electors to Biden. Presumably that decision was 9-0. This was the easiest ruling these judges will ever issue. They weren’t going to effectively dissolve the United States because Trump can’t cope with the fact that he lost and Republican officials can’t bear to tell him otherwise. Just the fact that Ken Paxton and his many allies were willing to bring this suit, knowing the consequences if it prevailed, has done damage to the country that’ll never be undone. Like I said earlier, the masks are off. Lotta reaction to come, no doubt, including from you-know-who. Stand by for updates. Update: Ben Sasse cheers the decision: “Since Election Night, a lot of people have been confusing voters by spinning Kenyan Birther-type, ‘Chavez rigged the election from the grave’ conspiracy theories, but every American who cares about the rule of law should take comfort that the Supreme Court — including all three of President Trump’s picks — closed the book on the nonsense.” Update: There’s a school of thought that the double whammy of being rejected by SCOTUS and seeing the electoral college elect Biden on Monday will finally convince Trump that the game is over. I think he’s assumed for awhile that the game is over, though. The question isn’t whether he understands that he’s lost, it’s how spiteful and destructive he wants to be on his way out the door.
