And those same founding documents established the role of the state legislature and executive and the process they had to go through to enact state laws, including election laws.
By ratifying the Constitution, the state agreed to the stipulation that the legislature had sole power to set the process for selecting Electors.
The stipulation is the Legislature, not the Executive nor Judiciary of the state, is the body to choose electors. It still has to be done within the confines of the state constitution.
For example, the US Constitution says the state legislatures control the "time, place and manner" of electing representatives and senators, just like they control the selection of electors. If this gives them the plenary power you say it does the partisan majority could sit down on October 20th and say "Based on early voting I think our party's ahead. Let's end this thing tomorrow."
But of course they can't do that. They have to abide by the election laws they've already passed that spell out the election process.
Can they change those laws? Of course, but not by decree. By the legislative process.
Likewise, there are laws the PA legislature has passed defining the process for choosing electors. They can change those laws but they can't just ignore them.
As tempting as the idea is I think it just a deus ex machina device to avoid the reality that the PA Supreme Court is controlled by Democrats.
If the state legislatures really have this absolute power why haven't any ever exercised it before? You can say it's because we've never had a deadlock but a deadlock isn't a requirement in the US Constitution.
RE: #1
They have to abide by the election laws they've already passed that spell out the election process. Can they change those laws? Of course, but not by decree.
But that's exactly what the Governor and the state court did. Where's the outrage?
RE: #2
If the state legislatures really have this absolute power why haven't any ever exercised it before?
It's an emergency use of power. It hasn't been needed before because the opposition hasn't been as brazen before, and politically it would have been a risk before. This time, the legislature would be acting to prevent Pennsylvania from potentially being excluded from the Electoral College, which is their Constitutional obligation.
I've posted before that the Democrats count on the Republicans to be reticent to act boldly, and they use this against Republicans to push boundaries in the way of their agenda. This is a perfect example of that.
Republicans have historically used "worst case analysis" to talk themselves out of acting on the presumption that the worst case will be the case that comes to pass, so why bother? I say that the game is to keep the ball in play because one never knows what will happen until the clock runs out. The outcome is guaranteed if the Republicans concede with time left.
That's where we're at today. It's time for the Republicans to stake out the claim that they have the Constitutional power to set Elector selection law, and the court had no jurisdiction to change their laws. The PA GOP needs to argue this to SCOTUS, that the court encroached on their power - not that the court ruling was changing election law while the election was already in progress. Make the Democrats go on the defensive to justify their usurpation of legislative power.
-PJ