I've been follow Brad for a number of years now. It is clear the Republicans are trying to suppress the vote. However, going to 28 days prior to an election, I don't see it as that big.

14 years out from Bush vs Gore with the Supreme Court intervening to directly decide an election, and we are still surprised that the only principle that guides them is "What will most benefit the Republican Party?"

Jay T -

Appreciate your thoughts (and, please note, to help folks keep track, I've changed your comment name from "JT" to "Jay T", which is the one you've used here for years and since we have another JT here occassionally, to avoid confusion).

The problem isn't scaling back to 28 days, per se. It's several issues in Ohio, such as getting rid of the entire week when folks could both register and vote on the same day. They won't be able to do that in Ohio anymore if this stands. Also, getting rid of Sunday voting before elections when hundreds of thousands of African Americans have traditional cast their votes on "Souls to the Polls" day.

Now, there are still opportunities to cast a vote in OH, obviously, but the ones that have been taken away here are being taken away only for an attempted partisan advantage, not for any actual compelling government interest. In other words, they are gaming the election rules in order to increase GOP odds of winning elections. They are taking away voting rights in order to do it.

While that is terrible as is, particularly when ALL of the lower courts (District Court and Appeals Court) found it in violation of law and Constitution, but the worst part here is that the U.S. Supreme Court a) entirely ignored the unanimous findings of the lower court judges and b) most important of all, defied its own precedents for such cases.

That latter concern is the worst of all, because it signals a break from precedent that is likely to be employed by the Court in dealing with other, more sweeping voter suppression cases, such as the Photo ID voting restrictions in WI, TX and NC, etc. As well as other restrictions on Early Voting and Same Day Registration in places like NC, and elsewhere, where the signal to the GOP is now: "Restrict whatever you like to win elections! We'll back you up at the U.S. Supreme Court, no matter what!"

Hope that better explains why this is so troubling. I had to get to the TV studio to do Thom Hartmann yesterday, so didn't have time to go into more detail, like the above.