Supreme Court Denies Democrats’ Appeal Over Wisconsin’s Deadline for Mail Ballots

October 27, 2020by David G. Savage, Los Angeles Times
Supreme Court Denies Democrats’ Appeal Over Wisconsin’s Deadline for Mail Ballots
The U.S. Supreme Court building. (Photo by Dan McCue)

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday refused to extend the Election Day deadline for mail ballots in Wisconsin, rejecting appeals from Democrats who said the Postal Service may not be able handle the flood of election mail by Nov. 3.

The justices by a 5-3 vote left in place a ruling by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court in Chicago that blocked relaxing the deadline in response to the pandemic.

The court’s five Republican appointees were in the majority, while the three Democratic appointees — Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan — said they would have granted the appeal.

The court’s decision was announced as the Senate voted to confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett to fill the seat of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Wisconsin election officials predict that as many as 2 million of its voters may cast their ballots by mail, and the court decisions require those ballots to arrive at a county election office by Nov. 3 if they are to be counted.

Democrats and voting rights advocates had argued that mail ballots that arrived up to six days after Nov. 3 should be counted if they were postmarked by Election Day. They won a ruling from a federal district judge in Madison, but lost by a 2-1 vote in the 7th Circuit.

The outcome stands in contrast to the court’s ruling in a similar dispute from Pennsylvania. On a tie vote, the justices let stand a ruling from Pennsylvania’s high court that extended the deadline for three days for ballots that were mailed by Election Day.

However, in the Wisconsin case, the justices were being asked to overturn a lower court ruling that rejected a change in the state’s deadline. And to prevail, the Democrats needed the votes of at least five justices.

In a concurring opinion, Justices Neil M. Gorsuch and Brett M. Kavanaugh said the federal judges should not have intervened in the first place.

“The Constitution provides that state legislatures — not federal judges, not state judges, not state governors, not other state officials — bear primary responsibility for setting election rules,” Gorsuch wrote in Democratic National Committee vs. Wisconsin State Legislature.

Kagan wrote in dissent and argued the court should have upheld the federal judge’s order extending the deadline for counting late ballots. “As the COVID pandemic rages, the court has failed to adequately protect the nation’s voters. Tens of thousands of Wisconsinites, through no fault of their own, may receive their mail ballots too late to return them by Election Day,” she said.

Earlier, Judge Frank Easterbrook, an appointee of President Ronald Reagan on the 7th Circuit, had cited the so-called “Purcell principle” whereby the Supreme Court has frowned upon federal judges ordering changes in a state’s voting rules on the eve of an election.

But lawyers for the Democrats pointed to the Supreme Court’s ruling in April that allowed for counting late-arriving ballots in Wisconsin. Then, the court in an opinion siding with the Wisconsin Republicans, said ballots that were “postmarked by Election Day” would be counted in the primary, even if they arrived up to six days late.

In their appeal, the Democrats had asked the court to adopt the same rule now for the general election. They had the support of Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat.

“The pandemic has created a dangerous choice for Wisconsin’s voters: risk exposure to the virus and the possibility of infection, illness and death, or minimize that risk by voting absentee,” he told the justices in a friend-of-the-court brief. “Because of the continuing severe upsurge in COVID-19 cases in Wisconsin … it is likely that an increasing number of Wisconsin’s voters will choose in the remaining weeks before the election to protect themselves and vote absentee.”

The state Legislature, controlled by Republicans, appealed to the 7th Circuit and won a ruling to bar the counting of late-arriving mail ballots.

Wisconsin’s lawmakers had urged the high court to stand aside. “The legislature’s decision not to change Wisconsin’s exceedingly generous election laws for the November 2020 election falls squarely within its broad authority … and is thus not subject to second-guessing by an unelected federal judiciary,” they said.

In their appeal, Democrats pointed to a strong dissent from 7th Circuit Judge Ilana Rovner, an appointee of President George H.W. Bush. “This is a travesty,” she wrote. “The inevitable result of the court’s decision today will be that many thousands of Wisconsin citizens will lose their right to vote despite doing everything they reasonably can to exercise it.”

___

(c)2020 Los Angeles Times

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

A+
a-
  • state news
  • Supreme Court
  • vote-by-mail
  • Wisconsin
  • In The News

    Health

    Voting

    Supreme Court

    Five Takeaways From the Abortion Pill Case Before US Supreme Court

    WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Supreme Court justices on Tuesday did not appear ready to limit access to the abortion pill mifepristone,... Read More

    WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Supreme Court justices on Tuesday did not appear ready to limit access to the abortion pill mifepristone, in a case that could have far-reaching implications for millions of American women and for scores of drugs regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. It's... Read More

    March 26, 2024
    by Tom Ramstack
    Supreme Court Skeptical of Ban on Abortion Pill Mifepristone

    WASHINGTON — A hearing Tuesday before the Supreme Court indicated a majority of the justices want to maintain women’s access... Read More

    WASHINGTON — A hearing Tuesday before the Supreme Court indicated a majority of the justices want to maintain women’s access to the abortion pill mifepristone despite objections from anti-abortion activists. The doctors and organizations who sued argued the Food and Drug Administration was wrong in granting... Read More

    March 19, 2024
    by Dan McCue
    Supreme Court Gives Texas Green Light to Deport Illegal Immigrants

    WASHINGTON — A divided Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed Texas to begin enforcing a state law that effectively allows officials... Read More

    WASHINGTON — A divided Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed Texas to begin enforcing a state law that effectively allows officials to deport undocumented immigrants, despite objections from the Biden administration, which argued only the federal government has authority over immigration issues. In an unsigned order, the... Read More

    A Supreme Court Ruling in a Social Media Case Could Set Standards for Free Speech in the Digital Age

    WASHINGTON (AP) — In a busy term that could set standards for free speech in the digital age, the Supreme... Read More

    WASHINGTON (AP) — In a busy term that could set standards for free speech in the digital age, the Supreme Court on Monday is taking up a dispute between Republican-led states and the Biden administration over how far the federal government can go to combat controversial social... Read More

    March 4, 2024
    by Dan McCue
    Justices Rule Trump Can Stay on Colorado Ballot

    WASHINGTON — In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court ruled Monday that former President Donald Trump may remain on Colorado’s... Read More

    WASHINGTON — In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court ruled Monday that former President Donald Trump may remain on Colorado’s primary ballot, rejecting a challenge to his eligibility based on a section of the 14th Amendment that bars those who have “engaged in insurrection” from holding... Read More

    About as Many Abortions Happening in US Monthly as Before Roe Was Overturned, Report Finds

    The number of abortions performed each month is about the same as before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and... Read More

    The number of abortions performed each month is about the same as before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and the nationwide right to abortion more than a year and a half ago, a new report finds. The latest edition of the #WeCount report conducted for... Read More

    News From The Well
    scroll top