Discussion
…. Taking a shot at Kavanaugh, Alito insists that the statutes governing USPS insulate it from having to act in accord with Administrative Procedure Act. Alito rejects out of hand that USPS’s Final Rule is ultra vires, legal term for the idea that is wholly beyond the scope of its Congressionally granted powers. In other words, he thinks the President-King and USPS have legal authority to run vote-from-home. 6/
Alito says it’s plaintiff-states’ and lower court judges’ fault that there is anything to what he concedes is a factually accurate problem with allowing the Final Rule to take effect, namely that there is no time for the states to comply. Alito is not ultimately troubled by this - tho it would probably disenfranchise millions of voters - bc he thinks the plaintiff states and lower court judges caused the poor beleaguered President-King and the Post Office to delay promulgating a Final Rule. 8/
If only the plaintiffs hadn’t sought legal recourse, as is their right, and if only two lower court judges hadn’t applied the law to protect the states’ legitimate interests, USPS could have, according to Alito, quickly enough promulgated and operationalized its takeover of vote-from-home, which is the result Alito is ready to approve at the earliest possible opportunity. 9/
@heidilifeldman it's the logic of the abuser: look what you made me do to you
As you can see, I find that as usual Alito is wholly unconvincing in his anti-democracy arguments. But frankly, I’m more galled by the equally usual lack of courage from the Roberts Court. They apparently could not muster a majority to write even a short per curiam opinion to deter Trump from trying to run the 2028 elections, whether through regulating design of ballots or using USPS to create a voter roll controlled by Trump. 10/
Install BT Free Social
Get the full app experience
In principle, the next Congress could pass law making it clear it does not grant USPS such power. But in practice, this would require a veto-proof Democratic majority, which we are not going to get.
Alito’s opinion includes of course one further gratuitous and obnoxious jab at the plaintiff-states and the federal district court judge, Indira Talwani, who issued a series of injunctions against Trump/DoJ in the proceedings below. 7/