Can you imagine a 5-4 Supreme Court ruling, where the breaking vote comes from a judge appointed by the candidate whom the court declared the winner?

Guess it’s back to civil war then.

In all the reading I’ve done on that case, it really seems like the biggest mistake the SCOTUS made was accepting the case in the first place.

Why would you say that? They took the case to assure that outcome in my opinion.

Then we would defer to the ruling of the lower court.