https://www.nysun.com/editorials/justice-samuel-alito-prophet/91326/
Is it but coincidence, we wonder, that Samuel Alito is the Justice who led the dissenters against the decision of the Supreme Court last week to take a powder on Pennsylvania? That is, could it be merely coincidence that the justice who seems to grasp the possibility of malfeasance in the swamp of Pennsylvania is the only justice to have served as United States attorney for the District of New Jersey (and rode the Third Circuit, based at Philadelphia)? Or is Justice Alito just naturally savvier?
What prompts these questions is President Trump’s motion at the Supreme Court today to join the legal fray over the vote in Pennsylvania. He is picking up on Justice Alito’s statement last week in Republican Party of Pennsylvania v. Kathy Boockvar, secretary of state of Pennsylvania. The GOP was trying to get the Nine to address, before the election, Republican concern over the handling of the vote in the Quaker State.
The court declined, for the moment. Justice Alito, joined by Justices Thomas and Gorsuch, issued a remarkable statement. The Court, Justice Alito wrote in what has turned out to be an understatement, “has needlessly created conditions that could lead to serious post-election problems.” Given what’s come into view in the past twenty-four hours, it looks as if Justice Alito has the gift of pre-vision.
Justice Alito, in any event, goes on to note that the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania has “issued a decree that squarely alters an important statutory provision enacted by the Pennsylvania Legislature pursuant to its authority under the Constitution of the United States to make rules governing the conduct of elections for federal office.” He cited the law called Act 77, passed last year.