This is an indication that the Donofrio conference netted 3 votes. I doubt Justice Scalia would have referred it if the first case had gotten only 1 or 2 votes.
IMO.
I was just going to say that Donofrio must have gotten at least two votes, Thomas and Scalia, but probably your guess of three may be likelier.
It takes 4 votes to put it on the docket. I wonder which of the conservatives voted against Donofrio?
Aside from the fact that ignoring this issue is ignoring the Constitution, I hope SCOTUS understands that this issue is not going to go away, and if they refuse to act there will be bad feelings, and perhaps criminal revelations, during the next four years. The clinton machine couldn’t stop all the leaks, and I doubt whether the Obama machine will, either.
The other way to look at it, though, is that maybe they are distributing the cases because then the whole court is in on the denial.
Hard to say.