The Supreme Court on Monday rejected, 5-4, Republicans’ attempt to limit which mail ballots can be counted, an effort which would have unleashed chaos and disenfranchised voters for the 2026 midterms and beyond.
The Republican National Committee had sued Mississippi, one of many states that accepts ballots mailed by Election Day but received by election administrators after that date.
“The federal election-day statutes do not prevent Mississippi from counting absentee ballots postmarked by election day but received up to five days thereafter; nothing in the federal election-day statutes requires ballots to be received by election day,” wrote Justice Amy Coney Barrett for the majority.
Barrett was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and the three liberals. Justice Samuel Alito wrote a dissent, joined by Justices Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas in full, and Justice Brett Kavanaugh in part.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
I’m shocked, I fully expected them to tank vote by mail. I mean I’m happy, but still shocked.
Alito must have shit his robes when he saw how this was going down.
ACB, who from a purely actuarial standpoint likely has a long SCOTUS career ahead of her, continues to be an interesting one to watch.
The usual pattern is this: “oh, doesn’t seem so bad! Oh, this is okay!” and then, “oh, they saved the worst for last.”
ETA: there’s one!
The big one is birthright citizenship. Still to come.