Why did the Supreme Court deem it important to uphold faithless elector laws? What might the consequences be if electors were allowed to vote differently than for the presidential candidate they were pledged to support?

In the ruling of the Supreme Court, state electors should not go contrary to the intentions of their state's electoral bodies.  In addition, the parties elected the electors to vote according to their party loyalties and not according to their individual preferences.

The Twelfth Amendment of the Constitution was not drafted to favor individual prejudices.  Electors were specifically required to back their parties when casting their electoral college votes so that they could vote in line with their state's popular votes.

The consequences of allowing electors to vote differently than for the presidential candidate they were pledged to support are:

a) Electors risk using their state's mandate in favor of their personal prejudices.

b) Electors will become disloyal to the parties that elected/selected them as electors.

c) Electors may favor candidates that did not win their state's popular votes, thereby denying the people their right to have their votes counting.

Explanation:

The faithless elector laws being enacted by the states are one of the safeguards to ensure that electors vote for the candidates that win the popular votes in their respective states.

1st amendment: freedom of speech, religion, petition, press, and assembly

2nd: right to bear arms

3rd: quartering of soldiers

4th: search and seizure

atman means 'eternal self'. the atman refers to the real self beyond ego or false self. it is often referred to as 'spirit' or 'soul' and indicates our true self or essence which underlies our existence.

there are many interesting perspectives on the self in hinduism ranging from the self as eternal servant of god to the self as being identified with god. the understanding of the self as eternal supports the idea of reincarnation in that the same eternal being can inhabit temporary bodies.

the idea of atman entails the idea of the self as a spiritual rather than material being and thus there is a strong dimension of hinduism which emphasises detachment from the material world and promotes practices such as asceticism. thus it could be said that in this world, a spiritual being, the atman, has a human experience rather than a human being having a spiritual experience.

explanation: