BO (OR HAIRYLIME),
do either of you have any answer to Barton's question about tie-breaking if an even numbered SCOTUS deliberates on a disputed election?
IIRC, you are both lawyerly types.
It would go back to the last court to make decision, right?
In the problem as stated, it was a case that originated at the SCOTUS level, leaving no prior decision to fall back on - something that has not happened on a presidential election issue.
Except that there would be no case at SCOTUS if there wasn’t first a decision someone decided to sue over.
And that decision would not, necessarily, have been made by a court.
If it was not at by a lower or state court, then there is nothing to fall back on, which was my point.
A tie would be held over until another term. In the case of a presidential dispute with no lower court decision, which is a tad hard to fathom, but was the case offered as a hypothetical, if they deadlocked (which seems unlikely with this 8 person court, but sure...), then it would go forward as I outlined.
Of course, if we also have House races in the
wind courts, such that they cannot go forward with a House election for president in the new Congress, then President Pelosi does seem like the end result with the current cast of players.
So many improbables... but who would have bet in 2013 that the President of the United States and his catspaws would be playing Russian Roulette with the lives of Americans through their ham-handed manipulation of the CDC?!
So, hypotheticals asked and answered.