Next, in those critical swing states where declarations are made about who won and lost, the lawsuits will flow built upon a common gripe: the vote itself is flawed, incomplete, and wrong, if not manipulated, corrupted or rigged.

That’s when Americans will learn that the real power in this election hails not from the voters, the candidates, or their backers, but from state supreme court mainstays wearing black robes wielding wood gavels and unlimited influence.

In battleground states Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida, the differences among these jurists – their ideology, their experience, in many cases their partisanship – could tip the scales of justice and the election. Take Pennsylvania, the oldest appellate court in America, where five of the seven sitting supreme court jurists today (Max Baer, Debra Todd, Christine Donohue, Kevin Dougherty and David Wecht) are Democrats appointed by Democratic governors. If Republicans challenge the result there, with proper cause or not, the odds of a positive verdict are not promising.