Supreme Court Rules Unanimously States Can Remove ‘Faithless Electors’

Fox News has more on this ruling:

The Supreme Court on Monday upheld state laws requiring those chosen for the Electoral College to back the popular winner in their state's presidential race, a rebuke of a group of so-called "faithless" presidential electors in Washington and Colorado who sued after they were sanctioned for voting contrary to pledges they took before becoming electors.

In a 9-0 ruling, the court said that those sanctions -- in Washington a fine and in Colorado being removed and replaced as an elector -- are constitutional.

The cases come after a group of Democratic electors that called themselves the "Hamilton Electors" voted for moderate Republicans instead of Hillary Clinton in 2016, in an unsuccessful effort to convince Republican electors to vote for somebody besides President Trump.

"Among the devices States have long used to achieve their object are pledge laws, designed to impress on electors their role as agents of others," Justice Elena Kagan wrote in the court's opinion. "That direction accords with the Constitution—as well as with the trust of a Nation that here, We the People rule.”

Though many voters don't realize it, when Americans cast their ballots in presidential elections they are actually voting for "electors" who later cast the official ballots that decide the presidential election. They almost always rubber-stamp the popular vote winner in their state, but at times have voted for a different candidate, as the Hamilton Electors did in 2016.

"Ultimately it is really about reflecting the will of the voters who participated in the election," Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman said in an interview with Fox News in an interview ahead of the oral arguments in the case. "And it is the state's determination of ensuring that those voters are represented in the Electoral College, and it is a state's right and it's a state's function."

In the 2016 presidential campaign, a handful of electors attempted to deny President Donald Trump the Electoral College majority by casting their votes for people who did not win their states' popular vote. 

This ruling would hold such people accountable by the State.