FRIEDNASH

that the RNC will “instruct its poll watchers to abandon their traditional role and, instead, lodge mass challenges both as voters cast their ballots and then as mail ballots are tabulated.”

Trump has even encouraged voters in North Carolina to break the law and vote twice — once by absentee ballot and once at the polls, to make sure their votes count. Twitter went so far as to hide the tweet for violating site rules about protecting civic and election integrity.

And, there has already been an explosion of lawsuits seeking to litigate the rules for the election.

All signs demonstrate that this will only intensify after Nov. 3.

Responsible news organizations will likely be more hesitant to call the election results except where there are decisive state wins. Meanwhile, vote counting in battleground states is likely to occur over days and possibly weeks as absentee and late mail ballots are handled and possibly adjudicated.

In a historic twist of fate, the election could ultimately be decided in the United States Supreme Court again where at least two, likely three, Trump appointees will sit.

Two of Trump’s appointees were on President George W. Bush’s legal team in 2000.

Amy Cohen Barrett helped President Bush’s legal team and remarkably claimed recently that, “I can’t remember exactly what piece of the case it was. There were a number of challenges.”

Trump appointee Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Chief Justice John Roberts, both in private practice, also assisted the Bush legal team.

Ultimately, Bush nominated both Kavanaugh and Roberts to the U. S. Court of Appeals for the D. C. Circuit, which led them to later be appointed to the Supreme Court.

How political was the

Bush decision? In his stinging dissent, Justice John Paul Stevens wrote, “Time will one day heal the wound to that confidence that will be inflicted by today’s decision. One thing, however, is certain. Although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year’s Presidential election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. It is the Nation’s confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law.”

If the Supreme Court in Trump v. Biden ultimately determines the outcome of this election, it is safe to say that the nation’s wounds may not heal for many generations to come.