The Supreme Court on Wednesday will hear arguments in a case involving a Republican challenge to an Illinois law that allows mail ballots to be counted if they are received up to two weeks after Election Day.
The justices will hear arguments over whether Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill., and two former presidential electors have the legal right to sue over the law in federal court. Lower federal courts ruled they lack standing.
The case is one of three major election-related cases the high court will hear this term. The others involve revisiting Louisiana's redistricting maps under the Voting Rights Act and challenges to limits on political party spending in coordination with campaigns.
In July 2023, a federal judge dismissed the Illinois case after finding Bost had failed to demonstrate he suffered a direct injury from the law, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
Bost claimed he suffered financially because, as a candidate with an interest in an accurate vote tally, he was forced to continue campaigning for two weeks after the election to monitor ballots.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, in a 2-1 ruling, found Bost was not required to conduct post-election monitoring.
In appealing to the Supreme Court in November, Bost argued his case presented "an opportunity for the court to provide lower courts and litigants much-needed guidance on candidate standing, outside of the high-stakes, emergency, post-election litigation where these issues commonly arise," the Times reported.
Bost added "the ability of candidates and parties to sue over state laws affecting their campaigns has been narrowed again, and, indeed, may never have been so restricted."
The congressman, who has served in the House since 2015, said lower courts had improperly dismissed the Illinois case by considering the probability of his winning the election as relevant. Judges should not "try to predict electoral outcomes" but rather should focus on whether a state election law "inflicted real costs" on a campaign, he said.
Several conservative and liberal organizations filed amicus briefs with the Supreme Court supporting Bost's appeal of the lawsuit challenging Illinois' mail-in voting law.
The American Civil Liberties Union and Department of Justice were among groups that 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 a statement.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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