Just months before the presidential election, the court could decide just how much power the states' Electoral College representatives have in picking the winner.
Some of those representatives, in Colorado and Washington state, are challenging state laws that restrict electors' autonomy. The states both retaliated against "faithless electors," individuals who cast their Electoral College votes for people other than the candidates who won the popular vote in their state.
During oral arguments in May, some of the justices appeared unnerved at the idea of unleashing electors to disregard the will of voters. Justice Samuel Alito worried about the "chaos" that would ensue from such a decision.
"Where the popular vote is close and changing just a few votes would alter the outcome or throw it into the House of Representatives - the rational response of the losing political party or elements within the losing political party would be to launch a massive campaign to try to influence electors and there would be a long period of uncertainty about who the next president was going to be," Alito said.
Representing the group of electors is the well-known Harvard Law professor and activist Lawrence Lessig, an outspoken critic of the Electoral College, which has nullified the nationwide popular vote in two presidential elections in the past 20 years. Lessig has been open about how the lawsuit is intended to make the current electoral process unpalatable to Americans compared to a popular election.
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