“This case,” Justice Klein began, his voice amplified from at least a dozen sets of speakers around the Mall, “sees the collision of the rights of States to administer elections, the power of Congress to set the date of elections, and the rights of citizens to equal protection of their voting rights under the Fouteenth Amendment. As the Court ruled half a century ago in Foster v Love, while the Constitution gives Congress alone the power to set the date for the election of President, that does not prevent individual states from conducting advance voting. However, those votes cast before Congress’s specified national election day are only collected. They are never consummated for the purpose of selecting electors until the election day Congress has specified.”

Rangan heard cheers rise up from the crowd, drowning out Klein’s words. The Court was going to rule for the people!

He kept reading the subtitles.

“The case before us now asks where a citizen, having cast an early vote which has not yet been consummated, has a legal right to change that vote, and in particular whether being denied the right to change his or her vote in the face of new information constitutes a violation of equal protection…”

The cheers died down, as the protesters realized that Klein had merely been recapping the case. Rangan started to lose the thread then, as Klein droned on, bringing up details of individual state cases, precedents of past cases years and decades old, complex points made in the oral arguments that the Justices thought it worth addressing.

When is he going to get to the point? Angel sent.

Rangan nodded. He could feel the crowd getting restless. The total hush that had greeted the first few words and the later cheering were now replaced by shuffling, by a low murmur, by people talking, trying to figure out if Klein had already told them how the court had decided, or was somehow hinting. Uncertainty spread from mind to mind. Anxiety.

Then Klein said words Rangan did understand. “We find that the equal protection rights of the Fourteenth Amendment have not been violated in this case.”

The breath whooshed out of his chest. He hadn’t known which way it would go. He’d thought he was prepared for this. But it still hit him like a blow, knocking the wind out of him, leaving him stunned.

Boos rose up from the crowd. A wave of disappointment struck him full force in the mind, hard enough that for a moment he thought he’d faint. He couldn’t hear Klein’s voice anymore over the boos, over the despair in his heart, but he could see the subtitles under the black-robed old man’s face.

“…no individual in this case was forced to exercise their vote without the full knowledge brought by election day. Instead, some chose, voluntarily, to cast their votes early…”