I'm not murikun. Can you explain this for me? Thanks.
Each state has a certain number of electors (between 3 and 55).
After the general election results have been counted in a state, the state's laws determine the formula by which this result translates into voting assignments for the state's electors.
In most states, this formula is very simple: Whichever candidate got the most votes in that state, is the candidate that
all the state's electors are assigned to vote for.
Then the electors come together and vote the way they were assigned to vote.
This is the vote that actually determines who becomes president.
The electors
usually vote for the candidate they were assigned to vote for by their state's laws.
In the past,
a few have occasionally defied their duty and voted for a different candidate, but (I think) never enough to make a difference.
After the 2016 election, the leftist media ran a campaign trying to convince electors who were assigned to vote for Trump, to vote for Hillary instead. But very few of them did.
So if this ruling had been made in 2015 or 16 would Hillary have won?
No.
A majority of all electors were assigned to vote for Trump (as a result of the elections and elector-assigning laws in all the states).
Not enough electors defected from their assignment to make a difference.
If enough of them
had defected to give Hillary the win, we would have had a constitutional crisis as there was no clarity on whether the electors could be prevented from doing that.
The new SCOTUS ruling is meant to address such a scenario, it seems.