It was the view of many that the Constitution secures to presidential electors the freedom to vote their conscience for president and vice president. But this question had never been ruled on by the Supreme Court, opening the door to a major constitutional crisis.
Representing electors in Colorado and Washington who were threatened or fined by their state government for voting their conscience in 2016, we brought the case before the Supreme Court in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election. Ultimately, the Supreme Court ruled that states could bind electors to vote for the candidate that won a state’s election, taking away their ability to vote as they choose. This was an instrumental case in stabilizing the 2020 election.