Conservative and liberal organizations have filed amicus briefs with the Supreme Court supporting the appeal of a lawsuit by Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill., challenging Illinois' mail-in voting law.
A three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 in August 2024 to uphold a district court's ruling that Bost's lawsuit, filed in May 2022, lacked standing under Article III of the Constitution because it did not demonstrate any harm attributable to the law, which allows mail-in ballots to be counted up to 14 days after the polls close on Election Day as if they were received on or before Election Day.
The Supreme Court last month agreed to hear the appeal in its next session; and on Tuesday, several groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and Department of Justice, filed amicus briefs in support of Bost's appeal.
"While the ACLU strongly opposes Congressman Bost's position on the merits and has repeatedly defended similar state laws from challenge, the rules that determine whether Bost has standing to even bring his anti-voter lawsuit also apply to civil rights groups when they bring suit to expand or protect the rights of voters," the ACLU said Tuesday in statement.
The ACLU said its brief, filed also on behalf of the League of Women's Voters, the League of Women Voters of Illinois, ACLU of Illinois, and the Rutherford Institute, defends Bost's claim that a diversion of campaign resources in response to the longer ballot-receipt period "constitutes a concrete, tangible economic injury" caused by the law. The briefs stated that "such tangible, concrete, economic injuries are the most traditional type of injury that can support Article III standing."
The DOJ's brief stated that "candidates have standing to seek prospective relief challenging a rule governing the validity of ballots so long as there is a risk that the ballots at issue could affect the outcome of their election."
"Federal law sets a single day for federal elections, yet Illinois allows ballots to be received after Election Day," wrote Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the DOJ's Office for Civil Rights, in a post on X. She was among several DOJ officials listed on the brief, led by Solicitor General John Sauer.
"When Cong. Michael Bost sued, federal courts said he didn't have standing," Dhillon wrote. "Today, we told the SCOTUS that result was wrong. He should have been allowed to sue."
Among the groups that also filed briefs Tuesday were the Republican National Committee, 10 Republican state attorneys general, the Public Interest Legal Foundation, the National Republican Congressional Committee, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, and fair election groups in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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