We’ve reached the stage in the legal efforts by President Trump’s allies to contest the election results where the Supreme Court could opt to get involved, but they’re not getting involved.
Congressman Mike Kelly sought an injunction from the Supreme Court to block Pennsylvania’s certification of its election results. Despite President Trump tweeting a photo of Amy Coney Barrett with lasers coming out of her eyes, the court declined to hear it, and none of the justices went on the record objecting to that decision. Ken White and Josh Barro talk through why this wasn’t a surprise, the reasons why the court probably won’t take up any of the other cases including the case from the Texas attorney general, and why this is really different from when the Supreme Court heard the election challenge in 2000.
Plus: Judge Emmet Sullivan has finally dismissed the Michael Flynn case, now that Flynn has accepted a pardon from President Trump, but Judge Sullivan had a lot to say about the pardon and many related issues on the record. Why did he do this? Other people had opinions about Flynn’s pardon too. Ken and Josh talk through a few of those, and it sounds like more pardons are coming. If you’re offered a pardon by a president but you’re pretty sure you haven’t broken any federal laws, should you accept it anyway?