Forgot Your Password?

New to The Nation? Subscribe

Print subscriber? Activate your online access

.nation-small__b{fill:#fff;}

The Supreme Court Is Helping Trump Rig the Midterms

Trump’s order limiting mail-in voting is patently unconstitutional—but that didn’t stop the court from giving it the green light.

The US Supreme Court at dusk.

There’s a scene in The Shawshank Redemption where the wrongly convicted prisoner, Andy Dufresne, is trying to convince Warden Norton to act on new evidence that could exonerate him. The warden, who is using Dufresne’s accounting skills to hide his own illegal dealings, offers a bunch of reasons for ignoring the new evidence. Dufresne exclaims, “How can you be so obtuse?” The line sends the warden into a rage, and he throws Dufresne into solitary confinement. 

The warden, of course, is not being obtuse. He understands the implications of what Dufresne is saying perfectly well. He just doesn’t want to lose his bookkeeper, and certainly doesn’t want to risk Dufresne’s exposing his illegal operation. The warden is not dense; he is evil.

So it is with our Supreme Court, which ruled on Monday to allow Donald Trump to move forward with one of his own illegal schemes. In an emergency decision, issued through the shadow docket, the Republican supermajority gave Trump permission to limit voting by mail in the upcoming midterm elections. In doing this, the six GOP justices understand that the president is trying to give himself the ability to manipulate the vote. They’re not confused by his plan. They’re not being obtuse. They’re simply aiding and abetting Trump’s assault on democratic self-government.

The origin of this particular assault is an executive order, issued in March, titled “Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections.” It does three things:

Instructs the Department of Homeland Security to come up with a list of US citizens it thinks are eligible to vote. The list would be independent of state voter rolls, yet sent to the states to supersede their own voter registration lists.

Instructs the Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute state and local officials who provide ballots to those who are “not eligible” to vote.

Prohibits the US Postal Service from delivering mail-in ballots to those the administration deems not eligible to vote.

The entire executive order is unconstitutional. Voter registration and the maintenance of voter rolls is handled on the state level, not the federal level. The Trump administration has no constitutional authority to tell the states whom can be sent a ballot. It has no constitutional authority to tell the Postal Service whom it can deliver mail to. It has no legal authority to........

© The Nation