The Supreme Court May No Longer Have the Legitimacy to Resolve a Disputed Election
If the country’s nine justices wind up deciding the presidential race, things could get very ugly very quickly.
by Richard L. Hasen
Feb 03, 2020
4 minutes
Among the many strange and worrying truths about American elections, one has a tendency to get lost: The path to the presidency can run not just through battleground states but also through the Supreme Court.
Back in 2000, it was the Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore that put an end to a month-long post-election battle between the Democrat Al Gore and the Republican George W. Bush over who would be awarded the state of Florida’s Electoral College votes and, in turn, the presidency. This time, were the outcome of the 2020 election to fall to the Court, the situation could be far messier, and at stake would be the legitimacy of both the Court and the entire American electoral process.
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