In his first inaugural address, Ronald Reagan remarked to the watching crowds, which included defeated President Jimmy Carter, “The orderly transfer of authority as called for in the Constitution routinely takes place, as it has for almost two centuries, and few of us stop to think how unique we really are.” Until this election, his words rang true.
On January 20, 2021, forty years from the day Reagan made his observation about the inaugural process, Joe Biden will be sworn in, ending the election and transition period that most threw our democracy into doubt. President Donald Trump has disregarded many norms of our political system throughout his four years in office, but his frequent assertions throughout the campaign of election fraud and his subsequent refusal to accept the election results has imperiled our democracy most of all and led to a state-condoned violent protest in the Capitol building.
On November 16, 2020, President Trump tweeted, “I won the Election!” This is notable not only because he did not win the election, but because nine days had passed since most major news networks had declared Joe Biden the winner. On December 14, 2020, the Electoral College made Joe Biden’s win official, meaning he will soon become the forty-sixth president of the United States, and his running mate Kamala Harris will become the first woman vice president, as well as the first Black and Asian-American person to ever hold this office. Throughout the following days and weeks, rather than concede, Trump repeatedly tweeted and retweeted allegations of election fraud and claims that victory had been snatched from his grasp by corrupt officials and rigged voting machines. On January 6, 2021, the natural result of disinformation and calls for revolution came to fruition, as thousands of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol building, disrupting the ceremonial process of certifying electoral college votes and causing the deaths of five people.
Trump and his allies’ accusations of voter fraud flew in the face of decisions by courts across the country, which have dismissed his claims of election irregularities and reaffirmed the groundbreaking victory of Biden and Harris. Of at least fifty-seven cases filed attempting to overturn the election, fifty had been dismissed, denied, settled, or withdrawn by the time the Electoral College certified Trump’s loss. Perhaps most notable of these was the Texas v. Pennsylvania case, which Trump himself called “the big one.”
In Texas v. Pennsylvania, the Attorney General of Texas attempted to sue the “swing states” of Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, all of which had voted for Biden. The plaintiff argued that changes to voting procedures in the defendant states resulted in violations of the Electors Clause of the Constitution, as well as the Fourteenth Amendment. The plaintiff took issue in particular with mail-in voting, which President Trump had frequently disparaged, writing in their brief that, “Absentee and mail-in voting are the primary opportunities for unlawful ballots to be cast.” After delineating the challenged voting procedures, the plaintiff’s brief requested that the votes cast in the 2020 election in the defendant states be thrown out and a special election held to determine how the electoral votes of the states should be allocated. In so doing, the state of Texas sought to throw out the votes of one-tenth of the voters in the country, disenfranchising all voters in four states.
The case brought criticism from legal scholars, who noted it could create a dangerous precedent of judicial interference in elections and bring the Supreme Court into an electoral arena never envisioned by the Constitution. In their response briefs, the defendant states pointed to the many changes enacted across the country in response to unprecedented voting barriers wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic and noted that Texas challenged changed procedures only in states where Biden had won. Ultimately, the Supreme Court unanimously disposed of the case in three sentences, finding that Texas had not shown a “judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections.” None of the three justices who Trump placed on the court dissented or joined the statement issued by Justices Thomas and Alito, who would have granted leave to sue but no other relief.
In response to the decision by the Court, President Trump tweeted, “The Supreme Court really let us down. No Wisdom, No Courage!” In a stroke of electoral irony, his reply came just days shy of the twentieth anniversary of Al Gore’s famous concession speech, in which he conceded the hotly contested 2000 election after the Supreme Court rejected Florida’s plan to recount ballots. In his speech, former Vice President Gore called upon his supporters to set aside partisanship and put their love of country first in supporting the new president-elect. He recited the quote carved into the Harvard Law School Library, “Not under man, but under God and law,” noting that this principle is foundational to our democracy and freedom.
The contrast between these two responses shows a stunning decline in the health of our democracy. Al Gore won the popular vote in 2000 and would have won the Electoral College if he had prevailed in a recount in Florida, which reported a margin of only 537 votes before the Supreme Court ordered the cessation of the recount. In contrast, across the four defendant states of Texas v. Pennsylvania, more than 300,000 votes separated Biden and Trump. To secure an Electoral College victory, Trump would have had to overturn at least three states. Despite these odds, Trump continued to claim the election was stolen and was supported in these efforts by several Republican lawmakers, notably Senators Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz. Even as a mob of his supporters overwhelmed the US Capitol, marking the first such breach of the Capitol since the War of 1812 and sending one full branch of the US government into lockdown, Trump stated in a video released on his now-defunct Twitter page, “This was a fraudulent election.”
Throughout his presidency, Donald Trump has deteriorated our democracy, flouting norms, laws, and often the Constitution in his quest to establish himself as an all-powerful executive. His permissive and, at times, celebratory attitude towards dictators across the world, as well as his own supposed jokes about securing an illegal third term for himself, show that he never respected the concept of a peaceful transfer of power. Perhaps more concerningly for the future of our democracy, the actions of many political figures across the country demonstrated an unwillingness to speak truth to power and advocate for a nation under law, not under Trump, even after his supporters invaded the seat of our government. Despite having been sent into emergency recess as armed Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, 147 Republican lawmakers voted against the certification of the Electoral College results, in a stunning dismissal of the people’s will, despite the verification of the results by each individual state and the dozens of lawsuits across the country which found no evidence of any basis on which to overturn the election.
Beyond the halls of Congress and statehouses, the effect of Trump’s rhetoric has undermined the confidence of the American public in the election. Polls show that roughly three-quarters of Republican voters are not confident in the electoral results, nearly three times the percent of Democrats who reported being skeptical about the results in 2016. Political scientists have sounded the alarm bells about Trump’s actions, noting that his failure to respect the will of the people, and the permissive response of his political allies, has weakened the democracy countless Americans have fought and died to protect.
As Ronald Reagan continued his first inaugural address on that unseasonably warm January day, he noted, “In the eyes of many in the world, this every four-year ceremony we accept as normal is nothing less than a miracle.” For many of us, as Joe Biden takes the oath of office on January 20, 2021, we will feel a renewed appreciation for the miracle of our democracy after this most contentious election and the violence we have recently witnessed. Hopefully, we will share a reinvigorated sense of purpose in preserving our democracy and destroying the echoes of Trumpism on our electoral system.
Abby Plummer is a member of the Northeastern University School of Law Class of 2022. Prior to law school, she worked in areas of education, employment, and immigration. A proud Double Husky, Abby graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern University in 2017, with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and International Affairs. Abby serves as an Associate Editor of the Law Review, for which she works on the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee, as well as the Submission Review Committee. Abby is also a teaching assistant for first year students.