In my view, Thomas is completely correct here. This was a case that was punted due to technical reasons, not an honest look at the law. Further, if before an election is not the time to allow this suit to go forward, and after the election it can’t go forward because it’s moot, exactly when can it go forward? All this sets up is for the country (and Pennsylvania in particular) to be dealing with these same issues again in two years.

Keep in mind, this was not a question of election fraud (i.e. falsifying votes) or some other radioactive topic. It was simply a question of whether unelected judges in a state can override said state’s constitution, blatantly violating election law while doing so. That seems like a precedent that should absolutely not be set and should instead be slapped down with prejudice. This is what the Supreme Court exists for, and once again, several members of the conservative wing chose cowardice over dealing with tough issues.

In the end, all this does is make sure that a huge contingent of Americans don’t trust our election system. And why should they if the courts can’t even be counted on to settle such obvious issues as what occurred in Pennsylvania? This is also a disappointing showing for Kavanaugh and Barrett, two judges that conservatives absolutely went to the mat for. No one is asking them to bias their judgements, but there was no logical reason to not vote to take up this case.

As per our usual agreement, everything that’s old will be new again, and that includes fighting these election fights in the coming years because our institutions refuse to fix the system.