By Elizabeth Dallam Ayoub | March 20, 2024
When the United States Supreme Court ruled on the Trump v. Anderson case on March 4, there was a direct link between the highest court of our nation and Michigan Fair Elections.
Michigan Fair Elections filed an Amici Curiae Brief in the case Donald J. Trump v. Norma Anderson, et al., in support of neither party. Michigan Fair Election’s brief was filed, instead, in support of election integrity across the United States.
Michigan Fair Elections, Pure Integrity Michigan Elections, Wisconsin Voter Alliance and Ryan Binkley filed this brief. Why?
Ryan Binkley wanted to be placed on the primary ballot in Minnesota and was denied. When the Supreme Court of the United States granted certiorari (a writ or order by which a higher court reviews a decision of a lower court) in the case Trump v. Norma Anderson – two candidates in the United States were being deprived a place on the ballot. As a non-partisan 501(c)(3) educational organization that works to ensure that Michigan elections are conducted according to the law, Michigan Fair Elections believed there were legal arguments to be made as to why depriving potential candidates from being placed on the ballot was antagonistic to the Constitution of the United States and to election integrity.
MFE and other parties' brief argued that fair elections must encompass consistency: “States determining which presidential candidate is qualified or not will lead to inconsistent decisions among the states on whether a future President-Elect is disqualified.” (p. 24)
Reading the Supreme Court’s decision one sees that the reasoning and argument used by Michigan Fair Elections and the other parties was used by the Supreme Court in reaching its result. This is what the high court wrote:
The result could well be that a single candidate would be declared ineligible in some States, but not others, based on the same conduct (and perhaps even the same factual record). The “patchwork” that would likely result from state enforcement would “sever the direct link that the Framers found so critical between the National Government and the people of the United States” as a whole. U. S. Term Limits, 514 U. S., at 822. 23-719 Trump v. Anderson (03/04/2024) (supremecourt.gov)
With this issue resolved, people in the United States are handed the assurance that the candidates on the respective state ballots cannot be removed through partisan objectives.
We the People were also handed wise words from one of our nine Supreme Court Justices. Justice Amy Coney-Barrett who wrote:
In my judgment, this is not the time to amplify disagreement with stridency.* The Court has settled a politically charged issue in the volatile season of a Presidential election. Particularly in this circumstance, writings on the Court should turn the national temperature down, not up. For present purposes, our differences are far less important than our unanimity: All nine Justices agree on the outcome of this case. That is the message Americans should take home. 23-719 Trump v. Anderson (03/04/2024) (supremecourt.gov)
The high court was formed as a non-partisan entity. Each Justice takes an oath to uphold not his or her own political views but the Constitution of the United States. All nine justices agreed that no state actor or court has the legal authority to remove a Federal candidate from the ballot.
But there are disagreements and rhetoric. If a reader is looking for unbiased information and legal opinions about the case, the reader will have to surmount the algorithms formulated by Google.
Michigan Fair Elections published posts months ago about political targeting and brainwashing:
During interviews and hearings before Congress, Dr. Robert Epstein discussed his scientific findings as to how Google targets individuals. In one of the interviews, Epstein urged his readers to attempt a search and see what “first pops up.”
Michigan Fair Elections urges readers to do the same today. Try searching for results about the Trump v. Anderson case.
These are a few of the results topped this writer's search results on Google:
It is difficult, very difficult, to find statements from legal scholars who believe the Supreme Court’s decision was correctly interpreted. In this divided nation, it is hard to believe that there is not a large contingent of people who believe the justices ruled correctly.
The question to ask is this: “Why can’t we find this information?”
Michigan Fair Elections suggests that readers re-read the Robert Epstein articles or watch his hearing testimony.
Epstein's 2019 Congressional testimony on Big Tech’s threat to democracy may be accessed at https://EpsteinTestimony.com. (It's difficult to access the CSPAN clip via Google due to scary warnings, so try using the search engine, Brave.)
The written text of his testimony is available here.
Learn more about Epstein's research on online influence at https://MyGoogleResearch.com.
While the matter of whether a state may remove a presidential candidate is settled (No, it may not.), the rhetoric and subliminal messaging are in full gear. Many in the country continue to foment dissension and regard the high court's decision not as what all nine justices contend it to be: What the United States Constitution, the ultimate law of the land, mandates.
Even as Justice Coney-Barrett stated that this Opinion should turn down the temperatures in our country, many in the country add fuel to the biased-media fire. A sports writer, Keith Olbermann, weighed in on the issue: “The Supreme Court has betrayed democracy. Its members including Jackson, Kagan, and Sotomayor have proved themselves inept at reading comprehension. And collectively the 'court' has shown itself to be corrupt and illegitimate. It must be dissolved.”
Olbermann, as with other howling faultfinders--most of whom are neither attorneys nor judges trained in the law--offer baseless opinions and create more dissension--going so far as to suggest dissolving one of the three branches of government.
Those are the articles and statements one finds when searching Google for information on the Trump v. Anderson decision.
Hopefully, the nation will unify around the SCOTUS ruling and regain unified respect for the United States Constitution, each state’s constitution, and laws that protect the integrity of our elections. May our republic move forward with each party vying to win the general election in November by ensuring that each legal voter may cast one legal vote.
Thanks to the Supreme Court--and to organizations like Michigan Fair Elections, Pure Integrity Michigan Elections, the Wisconsin Voter Alliance, and Ryan Binkley--our elections will continue to start with a full slate of candidates on the ballot. Then the electors (We the People, not the government) will whittle down the roster and select our representatives through our individual votes.
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Elizabeth Dallam Ayoub serves on MFE’s Communications Team. She started her career working for an international company, transitioned into teaching French and Latin while her children were young, and then became a Michigan attorney.
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