General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: ***Breaking*** SenJeffMerkley just filed a federal injunction to stop the Kavanaugh Vote. [View all]FBaggins
(26,775 posts)It was similar in the sense that federal courts are hesitant to overrule state courts in matters of interpreting state law/constitution... but there's no question that they have the power to do it when a federal constitutional issue is involved. In this case, the equal protection clause and how it applied to the lack of a single standard for how ballots should be counted statewide.
It's important to remember that while the decision to stop the recount efforts was 5-4... the determination that the state supreme court had erred and violated the equal protection clause was 7-2. The difference of opinion was over whether there was enough time to implement a single standard statewide... NOT whether the state court needed to be overturned.
Just as the Court can interpret the Constitution, they can interpret the rules set forth in the Constitution for the Senate
Nope... because the rules set forth in the Constitution for the Senate in this case simply says "Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings". Absent some other language (e.g., they can't change the standard to 3/4 supermajority), there is no way to read the above to mean "courts can change senate rules"