[IP] US Supreme Court Rules "No right to vote for Presidential Electors"
Begin forwarded message:
From: Gene Spafford <spaf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: July 19, 2004 1:58:09 PM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: For IP: US Supreme Court Rules "No right to vote for
Presidential Electors"
In the Washington Post this morning:
Usurping the Voters
By Peter M. Shane
Monday, July 19, 2004; Page A17 (summary; full text at
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60580-2004Jul18.html>)
"The individual citizen has no federal constitutional right to vote
for electors for the President of the United States," the court said,
"unless and until the state legislature chooses a statewide election
as the means to implement its power to appoint members of the
Electoral College."
...For example, even if Republicans narrowly won New Mexico, the
Democrat-controlled state government could decide to cast New Mexico's
electoral votes for the Democratic candidate in retaliation against
what might appear to be Republican election "irregularities" in
another state.
...Republican state governments in Florida, New Hampshire and Ohio,
and Democrats in New Mexico, could spare us all some electoral
suspense and simply decide their respective states' electoral votes on
their own.
...But unless the Supreme Court repudiates its dictum in Bush v. Gore,
there is an entirely serious prospect that a capricious state
government, Republican or Democratic, might seek to decide the
presidential election by removing the choice from the voters.
The writer is a professor of law at Ohio State University.
-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as roessler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To manage your subscription, go to
http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip
Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/