Ding,ding,ding! We have a winner.
I oppose judicial interference with the Presidential election process. Nothing is more political than elections, and as per Article II Section I and the Twelfth Amendment, the duty to give us a President resides with State legislatures and Congress.
Article II, Section 1: Each state shall appoint, in such a Manner as the legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors . . .
Federal courts can no more legitimately interfere with the vote of State electors than it can interfere with the President’s power to nominate ambassadors. Both acts are non-justiciable. To do so would be a gross, impeachable violation of the Constitution. Unfortunately, all liberals and too many Freepers have fallen into a rat trap concocted these past 80 years that any dispute must be settled by a branch of government unaccountable to the people. It simply isn’t true and Scotus cannot legitimately “fill in” when some people become disgusted with the other branches.
But unlike the President, the Constitution is silent as to ambassador qualifications. So who or what body is responsible for keeping a Kenyan, or any clearly foreign born and positively unqualified individual out of the White House?
The responsibility can only be with the parties charged with giving us a President, State Legislatures which are responsible for the appointment of electors, the electors themselves and perhaps the Senate which counts the votes. That is why it was not unimportant for the Senate in 2008 to find that McCain met the Constitutional requirements. Our Senate must ultimately count the electoral votes and that Senate decided McCain was qualified. Very simple, and no court can interfere with State electoral votes, nor the Senate in its duty to count the votes as directed by the Constitution.
The place to stop Constitutionally unqualified candidates is our State legislatures. These are the people our Constitution charged with exercising electoral judgment.
in 2000, the Florida legislature should have decided the matter. The problem was that it was controlled by Republicans, and Gore partisans would have screamed as much about that as they did about the Court’s decision. Push come to shove, Gore should have done what Nixon did in 1960, just accepted his loss. Convinced me forever that popular election is not the way to elect the President. Not unless they do it like the French and have the option of a do-over.
So where do Citizens go to seek redress when their State legislatures don't do their jobs properly? Nowhere?