Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Challenge to Illinois Mail-In Ballot Law

New York Times

02-06-2025

The Supreme Court announced on Monday that it would hear a case brought by a conservative congressman who had challenged an Illinois election law that allows mail-in ballots to be counted up to 14 days after an election.
Representative Mike Bost, a Republican who represents a district in downstate Illinois, along with two federal electors, sued the Illinois State Board of Elections in 2022. They argue that the state's law violates federal statutes establishing an Election Day because it allows absentee ballots to be received and counted after the election.
Republicans have repeatedly challenged state laws that allow ballots sent by mail to be counted after Election Day, an issue that President Trump pressed after his loss in the 2020 election, in which the use of mail balloting expanded because of the coronavirus pandemic.
A federal trial court had dismissed the case, finding that Mr. Bost and the electors lacked standing, meaning that they were not able to show they were directly injured by the state law. A federal appeals court agreed. Mr. Bost, who is represented by the conservative activist group Judicial Watch, asked the justices to weigh in.
The election law dispute is one of four new cases that the justices agreed on Monday to add to their docket for next term. The others include a case about whether immigrant detainees can sue a private detention company that they accuse of forcing them to perform labor; a Montana case about when law enforcement officers may enter a home without a search warrant if they believe an emergency is underway; and a dispute over whether a U.S. soldier injured by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan can sue the government contractor who had employed the bomber.
The justices had already agreed to hear another high-profile dispute during their upcoming term, which will begin the first Monday in October — a First Amendment challenge to a Colorado law that prohibits conversion therapy intended to change a minor's gender identity or sexual orientation. The justices will likely add more cases in the coming weeks as they wrap up their current term.
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