Dem
49
GOP
51
If you are a federal judge, particularly in a swing state, or on the Supreme Court, or in one of the far-right districts that people like Texas AG Ken Paxton tend to run to, you're going to earn your paycheck over the next few weeks, as the lawsuits are coming fast and furious.
Yesterday, we noted that the current state of affairs in Pennsylvania is that voters who cast problematic ballots—no date on the envelope, no envelope at all—have to be given an opportunity to rectify the situation, either by "curing" the ballot, or by casting a provisional ballot. Republicans don't like it when people are allowed to vote, so they threatened to take the matter to the Supreme Court. Yesterday, they made it official.
We mention this because the Pennsylvania Republicans were actually beaten to the punch, by a few hours, by a group of Virginia Republicans with a similar agenda. In the Old Dominion state, the current state of affairs is that Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) issued an order calling for the culling of voting rolls, resulting in 1,600 people getting booted. Then, a federal court found that the move was too late in the process, and said that the 1,600 folks have to be left on the voter rolls, at least until the full case is heard (well after the election). So, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares (R) filed a request with the Supreme Court yesterday, asking them to lift the stay, and to keep the 1,600 people from voting. If SCOTUS is going to give the Virginia GOPers what they want, they will have to move fast.
And then there's yet another case out of Mississippi, one that could end up before the Supreme Court at any time. This one flew under the radar, perhaps because it only applies to Mississippi at the moment, or perhaps because the three-judge panel just so happened to release its decision on Friday afternoon, thus burying it. In short, what happened was that—wait for it—a bunch of Magnolia State Republicans decided that they do not like it that mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day can be counted (assuming they arrive in a timely manner). So, the plaintiffs asked the federal courts to put a stop to that, and to decree that once Election Day is over, all further mail ballots are null and void.
The Mississippians got the case before the ultra-conservative Fifth Circuit, and managed to draw a panel of three very Trumpy judges, including one of the most questionable Trumpy judges of them all, James Ho. And the three judges stood on their head to come up with a ruling that gave the plaintiffs what they wanted. Writing for the majority, and disregarding over a century of precedent while also inventing a brand new and atextual reading of the law, Judge Andrew Oldham decreed that a vote is not actually "cast" until the state receives it. Ipso facto, if the state does not receive your mail-in ballot until after Election Day, you "cast" it late, even if you filled it out and sent it BEFORE Election Day.
At this point, the ruling doesn't matter too much, since it only applies to ruby-red Mississippi. That said, there is now a federal court on the record as saying that post-Election Day mail-in ballots can and should be rejected by their states. Can you imagine a Trumpy lawyer—or a hundred of them—making that argument in other states? Say, after the election is over, and they know in which states the late-arriving ballots could be decisive? We certainly can. So, as we note above, this one could also end up on the Supreme Court's docket, either now, at the request of Democrats who want to see the Fifth Circuit's ruling nipped in the bud, or in a week or two, when and if Republican operatives try to take advantage of it.
And finally, it may seem that only Republicans can initiate election-related lawsuits, but that's not so. Yesterday, Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner sued Elon Musk over the billionaire's $1 million giveaways, which sure look like an effort to buy votes. Republicans are crying foul, decreeing that Krasner is a liberal Democrat (true) and that he's doing this to advance his party's goals and/or his own career (maybe true, we don't know). However, it is also clear that what Musk is doing is either illegal, or is in enough of a gray area that it's well worth taking a look. The DA's suit claims it amounts to an illegal lottery. (Z)