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The Court has often dodged these cases when it finds them inconvenient by finding that the supplicant does not have "standing." I think there is a very high probability the court will dismiss all of these cases on the issue of standing. I say this even though I am aware that there are at least two cases which come at the matter from a different angle which might somehow provide standing. Standing here being defined as an interest in the petitioner which is concrete and explicit enough that the court should hear his claim.

There is however another means for the court to dodge this case which has troubled me from the very beginning. The court might well hold that there are other venues for these matters to be determined. First there is the matter of the secretaries of state of the individual states acting to remove from the ballot someone who is disqualified. Second, there is the possibility that the court might dump this off on some agency like the Federal Election Commission. Third, the court might hold that the matter should be decided by the electoral College saying that this is essentially a political question for them. Fourth, the court might hold this is a matter to be determined by the Senate and the House of Representatives, again, declaring this to be a political question.

Standing is another procedural rule of the legal system designed to put the court in a position where its orders are enforceable. So are the requirements of a case or controversy (plaintiff and defendant on opposite sides of an argument with harm flowing from one to the other); jurisdiction; and justiciability.

You may view those as dodges but they are not--they are substantive legal requirements of getting a legal proceeding before the courts; they exist for a reason.

In the case at hand, had competent counsel been engaged to pursue the issue last spring, the issue would have been resolved. The narrow time window in which a case could have been pursued to a decision between the election and the Electoral College is probably closing fast enough now that it will not be possible to get an effective challenge in place.

But other forms of action exist between the Electoral College and again after inauguration. Capable lawyers will ultimately get the issue before a court with the power to decide the issue.