Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson just hours before President Joe Biden announced he would not seek a second term in the White House. Threat case Trying to force Biden to appear as the Democratic candidate on at least some state ballots.
“Each state has its own system, and in some of them, it’s not possible to just switch a candidate,” Johnson told ABC News.
In a system governed by the rule of law, Johnson’s threat is empty. Although Biden was the likely Democratic presidential nominee until he decided to withdraw from the race, he was not legally the Democratic nominee until he was formally nominated by delegates at the party’s convention, which is Scheduled to start on August 19. So there’s no need to “switch out” Biden for another candidate because Biden was never officially on any state’s 2024 ballot.
Yet, the world we live in is—Trump v. United States (2024), the Supreme Court’s decision that former President Donald Trump is immune from prosecution for any crimes committed in the exercise of his official authority as president. The decision had no more basis in law than the Democrats’ decision to force Biden to run for president. So the possibility that a GOP-controlled Supreme Court will create some reason to sabotage the Democrats’ chances of retaining the White House cannot be completely ruled out.
The Court would struggle to justify such subterfuge, as its own decisions favoring Trump undercut the cases envisioned by Johnson. Recently this verdict of the Supreme Court Trump v. Anderson (2024), which overturned Colorado’s attempt to remove Republican Donald Trump from the 2024 ballot because of Trump’s role in the January 6 riots, also ruled against allowing a state to override the Democratic Party’s choice of candidate.
Anderson Very dependent on US Term Limits v. Thornton (1995), which held that “powers to elect federal officers must be delegated rather than reserved by the states.” That means, even if a state wanted to remove the Democratic presidential nominee (who would almost certainly be Vice President Kamala Harris) from the ballot and replace him with Biden, a federal constitutional provision or law would have to allow it. do so
State law does not generally prevent Democrats from putting Harris on the ballot instead of Biden
While Speaker Johnson did not identify which state laws could prevent Democrats from nominating Harris as their presidential candidate over Biden, the Heritage Foundation, a far-right think tank closely aligned with the GOP, released a memo claiming that three states — Georgia, Nevada and Wisconsin – There could be legislation that would frustrate the transition from Biden to Harris in the Democratic Party.
But none of those states’ laws should be read to prevent Harris from appearing as the Democratic Party’s nominee on the 2024 ballot.
Georgia law requires some presidential candidates to file a “notice of candidacy” in early July, but the same law Exemption to nominees of political parties which “held a national convention and nominated candidates for President and Vice President of the United States.” In case there was any uncertainty about what Georgia’s law means, Gabriel Sterling, a high-ranking state elections official, confirmed on X (formerly known as Twitter) Monday morning that Whom will Democrats choose at their convention in August? will appear on the Georgia ballot.
Similarly, in Nevada, regulations issued by the Secretary of State’s office provide that “each major political party must submit to the Secretary of State the names of the party’s respective candidates for President and Vice President of the United States. No later than 5 p.m. on the first business day of September Presidential Election Year.” The first business day of September is not yet over.
Joe Biden has dropped out of the 2024 race. Take this story.
President Joe Biden bowed to pressure from top Democrats and campaign donors who urged him to step down amid concerns about his age and low polling numbers against Donald Trump.
- Did other Democrats actually vote better against Trump than Biden?
- What will happen to Biden’s campaign cash?
- How did the Democrats get here?
- What can we learn from those who quit?
- Why Republicans are accusing Democrats of a “coup”.
Wisconsin law, meanwhile, provides that “nominees elected at a national convention” must be certified.No later than 5 p.m. on the first Tuesday in September before the presidential election” So, like Georgia and Nevada, Biden has never been certified as the Democratic Party’s 2024 nominee, and the party has plenty of time to choose a different candidate.
So should the ball game. In all three states flagged by Heritage, major party presidential nominees are determined after each party’s convention. So there is no need to change the Democratic Party nominee from Biden to Harris because Biden was never officially the Democratic nominee.
That said, there is one potential vehicle the Supreme Court could use to sabotage Harris. The usual rule is that state supreme courts have the final word on all questions of state law, so the US Supreme Court should play no role in determining which candidates qualify for each state’s ballot. inside Moore v. Harper (2023), however, the Supreme Court held that it could overrule a state court’s interpretation of a state election law if a majority of the justices held that the state court’s decision was “overbroad.[s] Limits of Ordinary Judicial Review.”
Courts, however, have never actually invoked this self-granted power, and it is unclear how judges will defend decisions to strike down state laws.
Republican lower court justices could wreak havoc before a Supreme Court trial
Democrats should brace for a risk that a lower court judge closely aligned with the Republican Party could issue a court order to return Biden’s name to the ballot. It’s not clear what the legal basis for such a decision would be, but there are judges — think of figures like Christian Right crusader Matthew Kasmaric or Eileen Cannon, the trial judge who has behaved like a member of Trump’s criminal defense team — who ‘have a knack for bending the law to achieve Republican goals. Showed great desire.
It’s also trivially easy for Republicans to sue in front of a friendly judge. For example, any lawsuit filed in Amarillo, Texas automatically lands in Kacsmaryk’s court.
Will the Supreme Court uphold a decision by someone like Kasmaric or Cannon who tried to rig the 2024 election for Donald Trump? Again, such a decision would require an unusual amount of cynicism by the justices, even by the standards of this unusually cynical Supreme Court.
Even if everything ultimately works out for the Democratic Party, Democrats should at least be prepared for a Trump-connected judge to temporarily throw the election into disarray.
