Monday’s ruling requiring that absentee ballots in South Carolina be signed by a witness, even in the midst of the worst pandemic of the century, is just another reminder that Republican-appointed members of the court have long adopted the GOP goal of controlling all three branches of government, regardless of what voters want.

Oppressive requirements on voting are a solution in search of a problem — unless you consider Republicans not being able to compete in fair elections a problem. George W. Bush’s Department of Justice spent five years looking for voting fraud and instead found “virtually no evidence of any organized effort to skew federal elections,” the New York Times reported in 2007. But all the proof the GOP really needed that voting is too easy presented itself in the massive multi-racial coalition that propelled Barack Obama into the presidency.

In the last decade Republicans have shamelessly pursued an agenda to make it more difficult to vote, while making it far easier to buy elections with anonymous, unlimited donations. And their greatest allies have been the members of the Supreme Court appointed by Republican presidents.