In a 5-3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to reinstate the Wisconsin absentee ballot deadline extension ordered by a lower court earlier this year and kept the deadline established by Wisconsin law in place. As a result, absentee ballots must be received by election day to be counted. This is another victory for the integrity of November's election.

President Trump has laid out in detail his potential nominees to the Supreme Court.  Later this week he will formally nominate a new Supreme Court Justice.  Meanwhile, Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden refuses to announce his list despite an earlier promise to do so.

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Sunday said he won’t release his list of prospective Supreme Court nominees until he is elected, giving off a set of reasons he believes “could influence that person’s decision” ahead of the November election despite pressure from both sides him to do so. . . .

However, Biden pledged in June to release his list of potential Supreme Court nominees, telling reporters that his campaign is “putting together a list of a group of African American women who are qualified and have the experience.” He added that the list wouldn’t release until each nominees are vetted but declined to give a timeline of when the list would be revealed.

The liberal group Demand Justice released its own shortlist of 17 Black women it says would make ideal justices, calling on Biden to follow Trump’s lead in releasing a list.

To follow up on yesterday, we thought we would break down some details of President Trump’s new list of judges. President Trump released his list because voters deserve a clear understanding of a candidate’s vision of the direction of the Supreme Court.  Vice President Biden needs to explain what kind of judges he would select, for as President Trump stated: “Unfortunately, there is a growing radical-left movement that rejects the principle of equal treatment under law. If this extreme movement is granted a majority on the Supreme Court, it will fundamentally transform America without a single vote of Congress.”

Briefly on the new list.  It includes three Senators, Tom Cotton, Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, who are very well known and leading conservatives.  Instead let’s first focus on the current judges on the list:

This morning, the Supreme Court dropped its much-anticipated opinion on faithless electors in Chiafalo v. Washington, which was consolidated with Colorado Department of State v. Baca.  Ruling unanimously, the Court held that a state may enforce an elector’s pledge to support their party’s nominee – and the state voters’ choice – for president in the Electoral College.

For many, the Court’s opinion puts to rest the argument that electors have the freedom to depart from the will of the voters to instead cast their vote as they please; however, the Court’s decision leaves open two methods by which electors can remain faithless – (1) when the state has no law in place to compel faithfulness, and (2) when the penalty is a monetary fine that the elector can pay in exchange for his unfaithfulness.

After Ukraine and the Russia-hoax, it seems likely the Democrats in the U.S. House's quest for Donald Trump’s tax returns is just the latest effort to damage the President politically.  During oral argument over President Trump’s tax returns, USA Today sums up that point as follows:

On the other hand, all the conservatives and some liberal justices wondered whether the subpoenas go too far in seeking a decade of private data involving not only the president but members of his family. They suggested such extensive probing could harass and distract both Trump and future presidents.

. . .

“How can we both protect the House’s interest in obtaining information it needs to legislate but also protect the presidency?" Kavanaugh asked House general counsel Douglas Letter. . . .

But even liberal Associate Justice Stephen Breyer noted the subpoenas "go way, way beyond tax returns," a concern voiced by several conservative colleagues.

Yesterday Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer outrageously threatened Supreme Court Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch:

I want to tell you, Gorsuch. I want to tell you, Kavanaugh. You have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price.  . You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.

Chief Justice Roberts in a rare rebuke stated:

Justices know that criticism comes with the territory, but threatening statements of this sort from the highest levels of government are not only inappropriate, they are dangerous. All Members of the Court will continue to do their job, without fear or favor, from whatever quarter.

The Supreme Court today announced that it would hear arguments about the “faithless elector cases.”  As SCOTUS blog writes:

In Chiafolo v. Washington and Colorado Department of State v. Baca, the justices will consider the constitutionality of “faithless elector” laws, which require presidential electors to vote the way state law directs. The petitioner in the Washington case, Peter Chiafolo, was elected as a presidential elector when Hillary Clinton won that state’s popular vote in 2016 but voted for Colin Powell instead, which led to a $1,000 fine for violating a state law that required him to vote for the presidential and vice-presidential candidates who won the majority of the popular votes. The respondent in the Colorado case, Micheal Baca, was removed as an elector after he attempted to vote for John Kasich, even though Clinton won the popular vote in Colorado as well. Chiafolo told the justices that the question has real-world importance in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election: In 2016, he noted, “ten of the 538 presidential electors either cast presidential votes other than the nominees of their party” or tried to do so but were replaced. A similar swing would “have changed the results in five of fifty-eight prior elections,” he added.

For being a black conservative, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has been subjected to an entirely different set of standards in the criticism of his judicial leanings and his personal life, according to an upcoming documentary highlighting his career and path to the Supreme Court. 

“If you criticize a black person who’s more liberal, you’re a racist. Whereas you can do whatever to me, or to now [Housing and Urban Development Secretary] Ben Carson, and that’s fine, because you’re not really black because you’re not doing what we expect black people to do,” he added.'

Demand Justice, a far left group run by former Hillary Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon that has become the left’s voice on judicial nominations, came out with their “short list” of potential liberal Supreme Court nominees.  The list is extreme to say the least.  How extreme?  As Carrie Severino points out:

Amazing: there must be hundreds of federal judges Obama put on the courts, and only 4 make this list. This list would have been way too liberal for Obama.

— Carrie Severino (@JCNSeverino) October 15, 2019

Today, Justice Gorsuch's new book, A Republic if You Can Keep was officially released.

Early reviews and comments indicate that President Trump hit a home run when he nominated Justice Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. Here are few quotes about and from the book that have come out in the last few days.