This election defines us

Dear Readers, This column is written before Election Day, before the report of any results.  Polls and anecdotal data suggest it is a 50/50 race which could go either way.  

I offer a few plaintive words that our election was conducted to the satisfaction of us, the voters.  It does not matter if the candidates emerge sour or bitter; the ultimate victor does not matter.  The question is whether we will continue our unbroken history of American Exceptionalism, the shining symbol of a people-driven government.

Laws and the legal system buttress our faith in the process.  At every step of our vote, there are laws to ensure the credibility of the result from registration, to voting, to canvassing the vote.  Missteps in the law will generate lawsuits, decided by impartial jurists based on hard facts, as opposed to what “people are saying.”

The last Presidential Election was full of false allegations of fraud.  There was no stolen election, this was a lie.  No facts were presented to a judge which even remotely crossed the line of the necessary burden of proof.  Lawyers were disbarred or disgraced for their legal misrepresentations and baseless arguments.  Indeed, a few are even staring at possible imprisonment from criminal charges.

The allegations of fraud in the last election have seeded ominous storm clouds for what happened on November 5^th.  These legal challenges will mutate and multiply.  This will be a stress test to our justice system, challenged to accept and fully resolve them to everyone’s satisfaction on a “Flash-point” compressed timeline.  Counties have deadlines for their vote count certified (in Georgia that deadline is November 12^th) and states have to “certify” or report their Electoral College Electors by December 11^th.  

These are the key dates to circle on your calendar.  In other words, any challenges to the vote count reported by each of Georgia’s counties hit a brick wall on November 12^th.  And, if a state cannot certify its vote by December 11^th, its Electors will not be counted on January 6^th, when Congress certifies the final vote and a Presidential winner is officially identified. 

This does not leave any wiggle room for the court system.  Expect for cases to be resolved and appealed, possibly to the United States Supreme Court with almost unprecedented speed.  

Cases maneuvered their way through the justice system the last time, but we live in such perilous times.  The courts have been the one remaining institutional leg held in high regard.  

Our faith in the court system has eroded.  It has been nibbled at by judges abusing their authority by finding results without strong justification.  Judge shopping at the federal district court and appellate levels has cheapened the image of blindfolded Lady Justice. 

The present construction of the United States Supreme Court has not helped matters.  It is reactionary and has cavalierly abandoned precedent.  It did not have to be this way, instead of wading into the trenches of political discord, it could take a pass.  The result of the Supreme Court’s legal aggression is it lacks any reservoir of goodwill.  If any cases reach the Supreme Court or it makes any remotely proactive decision, one side or the other is going to feel “jobbed.”

We live in such an evenly divided country.  We are almost incapable of civil conversation.  It is almost that our political differences have transmuted to linguistic babel.  You cannot go into an election believing your candidate can only lose if the election is stolen.  You have to wait for ballots to be counted, before declaring victory.  Nor, it is healthy for our Democracy to hold perceptions that is deeply imperiled. 

My prayer is that the court system can fulfill its unifying role, permitting us a chance to heal.  It’s what our Founding Fathers envisioned would be their function.  Politics may be a form of bloodless undisciplined war; court cases are calm reasoned consideration of facts and applying them to the rules by which we all live.  This is the core trust our Constitution deeded to us.  Without conviction our laws are fairly administered and interpreted, we are a lost rabble.

This election defines us.  Our court system stands between us and chaos.

Warner Robins attorney Jim Rockefeller is the former Chief Assistant District Attorney for Houston County, and a former Assistant State Attorney in Miami.  Owner of Rockefeller Law Center, Jim has been in private practice since 2000.  E-mail your comments or confidential legal questions to ajr@rockefellerlawcenter.com.