Daniel Wolfram
The Supreme Court ruling did not change anything about the upcoming election. But that does not mean that Trump will not be incentivized to try to change the parameters of the election in November.
Last night, the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to move forward with its highly disputed executive order that would restrict the use of mail-in voting.
It is important to note that this ruling did not address whether the executive order was legal, but instead the judges ruled that the Democratic states filed the lawsuit too soon.
The separate ruling is still the prevailing one, which means that the president cannot currently decide on what the U.S. Postal Service should do about delivering voting ballots to its constituents.
But it does raise the larger question about whether Trump is planning to push for even more chaos before the election. A Trump insider says it will happen this week.
Speculation of further interference
There is fear among some around Washington that the White House might attempt to declare a national emergency ahead of the upcoming midterm elections.
The administration has recently released an abundance of declassified intelligence documents and false voter statistics, leading critics to suspect a strategy to question voting security.
Former White House strategist Steve Bannon fueled those expectations during a recent episode of his podcast War Room. “Take your No 2 pencil out,” Bannon said. “It’s coming. It’s coming. Just block the last week of August out. It’s coming.”
Bannon is a highly controversial figure within Trump’s orbit as he championed the attack on the Capitol and was later sentenced to four months in jail for refusing to cooperate with the investigation into the insurrection on January 6.
When asked directly on Real America’s Voice whether he would declare a national emergency regarding the election, President Donald Trump refused to rule it out. “Let me just say, stranger things have happened, OK?” Trump said. “I’ll leave it at that.”
Gearing up for battle
Legal experts point out that executive power over state voting remains strictly limited by the Constitution.
Lawyer Aria Branch warned that the Trump administration is trying to lay the groundwork to nationalize elections. She added that illegal voting is not a widespread problem during American elections, calling the claim completely unfounded.
Last week, a federal statistical agency released a report alleging that it had identified 24,000 noncitizens voting in the 2020 election who were not permitted to vote. However, there was no evidence for how they uncovered this previously unknown evidence.
“This alleged analysis based on census data fails the laugh test,” said David Becker, director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, responding to the report.
How the Supreme Court ruling and Trump’s comments connect
This brings us back to the Supreme Court ruling and Trump’s numerous attempts to change the parameters for this upcoming election. As he continues to push the Save America Act to restrict voting to be almost exclusively in-person, even former Trump employees are sounding the alarm.
Ty Cobb, a former White House attorney, argues that Trump’s comments and speeches are building the foundation for a potential election emergency. He even warned that armed ICE officers could appear at polling stations to intimidate voters.
While this Supreme Court ruling has no effect on the original ruling that went against Trump, some still see this as a tool for further escalation. Even some judges serving on the Supreme Court are echoing that sentiment.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, writing in dissent on Monday’s ruling, warned that the Trump administration might be able to “game the system.”
Meanwhile, the election is now 70 days away.
