Pa. secretary of state acting like she’s God

If given the opportunity, which I sought but did not receive, I would have asked acting Pennsylvania Secretary of State Leigh M. Chapman just who in the hell does she thinks she is — God?

The acting secretary, acting on her own authority, has ordered the state to ignore a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that touches on voting integrity.

I warn you that this is complicated, but a broad outline is provided in this NBC News story.

In brief, Pennsylvania law requires that mail-in ballots must be signed and dated. The High Court reversed a ruling by the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals that held that undated ballots should be counted. The lack of the date was “immaterial,” the 3rd Circuit ruled. The Supremes disagreed, and the Supremes have the last word. 

But not if you are Secretary Chapman. She disagreed with the Supremes and ordered that undated ballots must be counted.

This isn’t about whether or not ballots need  to be dated.

The law says ballots must be dated and if you don’t like the law — vote to change it. 

If some unelected official — Chapman — can rewrite the law on a whim, what’s next? Maybe a signature isn’t “material” either.

Following Chapman’s power grab, the GOP went to court to stop her, and a full description of the legal snake basket is in this Inquirer story.

 Read it at your own risk. It’s deep, but I don’t want to get bogged down in details. The bottom line is the law is the law.

The Founding Father geniuses designed a unique system of governing, with checks and balances to guarantee no arm of the government could be pre-eminent.

Supposedly the executive, the legislative and the judicial are co-equal partners. In reality, the courts probably have the most power, being able to easily reverse legislation, while Congress needs to put together a heavy majority to overrule a court.

The glue that holds us together is respect for, and adherence to, the courts, most especially the U.S. Supreme Court.

When its orders are disobeyed, serious trouble results.

Such as?

Such as when Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus mobilized the Arkansas National Guard in 1957 in an effort to prevent nine African-American students from integrating Central H.S., as ordered by the High Court.

President Dwight Eisenhower responded — in a move that had to break his heart — by sending federal troops into a U.S. city to escort nine brave African-Americans to the school. That was a little more than 50 years ago, when armed force backed the Court’s order. We thought that settled things.

I know in some quarters (the Left) the Supreme Court has lost some of its legitimacy now that it has a conservative majority (which recently ruled against former President Donald J. Trump, even though he nominated three of them.)

I didn’t hear “legitimacy” complaints during almost seven decades of a liberal majority. Oh, that’s ”different.” 😁

Of course, I reached out to Chapman for an explanation and was shuttled to her communications person, who emailed back: “Thanks for your request but Acting Secretary of State Leigh Chapman is unavailable for an interview.” I then asked “Ellen Lyon (she/her/hers)” if “I/me/him/his” could have a statement justifying Chapman’s action?

I got a link to a statement in which Chapman said, “Today’s order from the U.S. Supreme Court vacating the Third Circuit’s decision on mootness grounds was not based on the merits of the issue and does not affect the prior decision of Commonwealth Court in any way. It provides no justification for counties to exclude ballots based on a minor omission, and we expect that counties will continue to comply with their obligation to count all legal votes.”

“Minor omission,” which violated state law. And yet, the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction is the entire United States, including Pennsylvania. I ask a lawyer friend if that is not the case.

“I have to give you a lawyer answer — it depends,” said the lawyer, a Democrat.

I am taking that as a yes in this case, but the next decision will come from the Democratic-dominated state Supreme Court.

But I digress — and will again.

In the runup to the Supreme Court ruling enshrining gay marriage as a right, some elected officials jumped the gun and began marrying people even though it was against the law. The social justice warriors should have been arrested for breaking the law.

Along with the elected official who refused to issue marriage licenses after marriage equity was passed.

The law is the law. It is not a la carte. You can’t have random actors taking random actions.

There’s a common cliche used by both sides: No man person is above the law.

That includes elected officials.

If you don’t like the law — change it.

You do that through the legislature or through the courts.

You don’t just ignore laws that you don’t like.

That is anarchy. It is an attack on democracy.