Courts open to ‘sore losers’
The firestorm of criticism against President Trump’s refusal to accept defeat and instead to mount voluminous legal challenges to the validity of the election, misses the mark. Lost in the personal animosity toward Trump is the value of those suits.
Under our system of laws, state and federal, an aggrieved person has the fundamental right to seek legal redress in the courts. No one, not even a highly controversial office holder like President Trump, should be overly criticized for choosing to exercise those rights as he or she sees fit. Whether those cases have merit or would change the election results is not the question. We should not confuse the right to exercise the right to seek judicial review with the apparent lack of merit to those cases. The submission of legal challenges to an election result cannot be predicated upon it being a valid claim. We do not want to condition access to our courts to only those lawsuits that look like winners. Whether those suits succeed upon court review is an entirely a different matter from the right to file them.
There are at least three benefits that can arise from these legal challenges. First, if they are summarily rejected across the country by various courts, that development would provide significant additional validity and support to the election of Vice President Joseph Biden and undermine the repeated assertions of the Trump campaign, surely to continue for years, that the election was somehow “stolen.”
Second, litigation, however meritless or dilatory, is far preferable to violence in the streets. Few would dispute that the country is badly splintered and that there are disruptive factions on both extremes of the political spectrum.
Given the violence this country has experienced in recent months, the preservation of public order cannot be assumed. The presence of armed individuals at the Michigan capital and the plot to kidnap its governor provide stark examples of this reality.
Court battles represent an appropriate, peaceful outlet for those supporters of President Trump who feel they were somehow cheated. The absence of violence is attributable, at least in part, to the fact that the election is far from settled. While many understandably clamor for President Trump to accept his defeat for the good of the nation, it may well be in the best interests of the country, at least temporarily, to have these legal battles, however specious, continue for a period of time to allow for the reduction of tensions.
Lastly, the test of any institution is how it functions under duress. These cases provide a meaningful opportunity for our national courts to demonstrate their strength by properly handling these matters under very difficult circumstances. The integrity and stability of our court system is essential in maintaining the order of our society. The submission of these cases to our judges and their fair adjudication will demonstrate to the nation and the world that our disputes are resolved, not by inflamed passions, but by applicable law. By and large we have an exemplary judiciary in this country. Let them do their work.
Being a “sore loser” is bad form after a ball game. However, sore losers have the right to go to court.