Vol. 21 No. 20--October 5, 2026

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Reflections/Jonathan Gramling

Jonathan Gramling

Blame the Supreme Court

If you are looking for someone to blame for the impending disruptions to the U.S. midterm elections — I can almost guarantee that it will be anything but a “normal” election — blame the U.S. Supreme Court.

In Trump v. United States on July 1, 2024, the Supreme Court ruled that “former and sitting presidents have absolute criminal immunity for core constitutional powers, presumptive immunity for other official acts, and no immunity for unofficial or private acts.”

What were they thinking?

And then on August 24th, the Supreme Court issued a shadow ruling — meaning there was no public discussion of voting by members of the Supreme Court, only an unsigned ruling — that essentially allows the U.S. Postal Service to “mess” with mail-in voting.

CBS News reported that “The Court's disposition of this application does not mean that any measure taken by the Government to implement the Order will necessarily be lawful," the Supreme Court said in an unsigned decision. "On that score, time will tell. But the Order itself does not harm the States, so the District Court lacked jurisdiction to bar the Government from trying to implement it."