SCOTUS Lets RI Move Forward With Agreement To Make Voting Easier For Pandemic

WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 12:  The Supreme Court of the United States of America. The building, a classical Corinthian architectural style, was completed in 1935 with marble mined from Vermont used on the exterior and the four inner courtyards  are white Georgia marble.  (Photo by Jonathan Newton / The Washington Post)
WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 12: The Supreme Court of the United States of America. The building, a classical Corinthian architectural style, was completed in 1935 with marble mined from Vermont used on the exterior and t... WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 12: The Supreme Court of the United States of America. The building, a classical Corinthian architectural style, was completed in 1935 with marble mined from Vermont used on the exterior and the four inner courtyards are white Georgia marble. (Photo by Jonathan Newton / The Washington Post via Getty Images) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

A Republican Party request that the Supreme Court block an agreement Rhode Island reached in court to expand absentee voting for the pandemic was a bridge too far for the conservative Court, which has otherwise sided against efforts to making voting easier in the emergency disputes that have reached it during the pandemic.

The court said Thursday that it would not block Rhode Island’s consent decree, as the RNC and state GOP was requesting ahead of its upcoming primary.

Rhode Island had recently settled a lawsuit brought against it by the voting rights group Common Cause by agreeing to waive to the state’s witness and notary requirements for absentee voting.

Justice Clarence Thomas, Justice Samual Alito, and Justice Neil Gorsuch indicated in Thursday’s order they would have blocked the consent decree.

In several other instances, the Supreme Court has favored the more restrictive voting regime when these sort of disputes were brought to its doorstep.

But unlike cases out of Alabama and Texas, where state officials are continuing to fight the efforts to make voting easier, Rhode Island’s state officials supported the consent decree and where not seeking to put it on hold.

That distinction appears to have led at least five members of the court (not every dissent must be noted publicly) to okay the more lax absentee voting procedure that Rhode Island agreed to.

“Unlike Merrill v. People First of Alabama, 591 U. S. ___ (2020), and other similar cases where a State defends its own law, here the state election officials support the challenged decree, and no state official has expressed opposition,” the court said. “Under these circumstances, the applicants lack a cognizable interest in the State’s ability to ‘enforce its duly enacted’ laws.”

The three public conservative dissenters did not elaborate on what they disagreed with about the court’s move. The majority’s rationale leaves the door wide open for states to continue to seek the Supreme Court intervention in court cases where lower courts rule in favor of expanding voting access during the pandemic.

Read the order below:

Latest News

Notable Replies

  1. Great, let’s get similar loosening of stringent voting requirements in all 50 states.

  2. Avatar for schmed schmed says:

    Justice Clarence Thomas, Justice Samual Alito, and Justice Neil Gorsuch indicated in Thursday’s order they would have blocked the consent decree.

    Clarence Thomas, Samual Alito, and Neil Gorsuch, Very Silly Party

    h/t @ralph_vonholst

  3. I’ll take the win on this one.

  4. Avatar for Akimbo Akimbo says:

    Kind of sinks us in Ohio, though. The Ohio General Assembly and SOS don’t want to expand access to the ballot box.

  5. So fair voting laws are legal, if the State is acquiescing in the demands for them. But if a State is fighting them then fair voting laws are bad.

    Seems legit.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

12 more replies

Participants

Avatar for discobot Avatar for mondfledermaus Avatar for steviedee111 Avatar for progress Avatar for nemo Avatar for leftcoaster Avatar for schmed Avatar for d2square Avatar for lizzymom Avatar for occamscoin Avatar for txlawyer Avatar for garrybee Avatar for dicktater Avatar for enceladus Avatar for Akimbo Avatar for Dialectical_B

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: