Republicans bid for unchecked power knocked back by Supreme Court | The World

what what happened here was there is this clause in the Constitution uh nautical one and the state legislature of North Carolina in uh you might say an argument just a little bit too cute uh latched on to the phrase where it the Constitution says the times places and manner of holding elections for senators and representatives shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature and they

took that as meaning that the governor and the courts could have no review of what the legislature does because the Constitution talks about the legislature and that's what they latched on to and in fact what had happened in North Carolina and it's not that unusual in the United States or other places that electorates are carved out in such a way as to favor the majority party

and that's what happened in North Carolina and it was challenged in the courts and the legislators uh took it to the U.S Supreme Court saying that we're not subject to the courts of North Carolina we can do whatever we want pursuant to the U.S Constitution yeah and look that could have created quite a lot of almost election interference and really shaping States along favorable lines to

that there were still three Supreme Court Justices who thought this might be a good idea well Beverly as usual the Supreme Court works in mysterious ways uh the Chief Justice Roberts who wrote the majority opinion I took the view that looked from the beginning of the United States courts have always been able to review what lawmakers do and we're not changing that in 2023. as to

the three who disagreed they didn't really disagree with those three led by uh justice uh Thomas said was we shouldn't even be hearing this case uh so they never opined as to the propriety of the law or the interpretation they latched on to a technicality that because of some procedural things that occurred in North Carolina there was nothing for the Supreme Court to hear now chief

justice Roberts dealt with that in his majority opinion and said no that's wrong there's an issue here and we're going to settle it and uh the majority he put together uh really crossed uh the political uh Spectrum it was uh justice Roberts he was joined by uh two conservative justices Kavanaugh and Barrett along with justices uh Kagan Sotomayor and Jackson who are viewed as more uh

liberal justices so it was a very strong unambiguous Coalition that this creative interpretation of the Constitution did not have any Merit yeah so it sort of deals a bit of a blow because it was sort of pushed a lot by Trump supporters in a way to try and manipulate the 2024 presidential election uh yes in a kind of a in an odd way um by controlling

the uh by saying that the state legislatures had unrestricted control over these issues they would be setting themselves up to be claiming frauds and everything else and then arguing that the courts couldn't look at it and uh the way chief justice Roberts wrote this opinion it's fair to say that this doctrine of uh independent state legislature is uh it's gone it's history it never was really

there yeah it's history it's suitably consigned to history tell us what you make of this latest audio that has emerged of Donald Trump really in as many words acknowledging that he was holding classified information look this whole thing is is so embarrassing and and so shocking considering that this is someone who was president of the United States was the chief law enforcement official of the United

States this whole event of these documents it's one thing to accidentally take something a file folder or something and when you're asked to return it say sorry and you return it and that's happened more than once but first of all he didn't take a file folder we're talking about boxes and evidently it was actually serious stuff I mean defense and intelligence material and outrageously he kind

of boasts that he has it and won't return it um it's uh something that we've never seen uh from someone in that position of authority it's really quite disgraceful and then for him to come out and say he did nothing wrong which is what he his is his Mantra on almost anything that is put to him uh you know what do you think I mean he's

going to be tried in Florida on on these charges it's going to be very hard in Florida to find people who aren't don't have some opinion about Donald Trump and many are his supporters that's true but uh you know jurors are very independent uh when they they take the gravity of a trial very very seriously I mean this is the and they understand that this is

a serious thing so I wouldn't be too concerned with that what Donald Trump has to be concerned with is that Florida is known for having the fastest criminal prosecutions in the United States they call it the rocket docket cases I mean before you blink an eye you're suddenly in front of a jury uh and uh I can't imagine he really wants this to go to trial

before the election but in Florida it's a real definite possibility really interesting Harry great to see you as always thanks so much thank you