The Supreme Court will weigh a pivotal case this week on who has the right to challenge election laws.
The conservative watchdog Judicial Watch sued on behalf of Illinois congressman Mike Bost (R) who is challenging a state law that allows mail-in ballots to be accepted two weeks late, as long as they are postmarked by Election Day, Just The News reported.
The Supreme Court is not weighing the merits of the law itself, but whether Bost has the right to challenge it, a concept known as "standing."
Bost's legal challenge had been rejected by lower courts, which found he lacked standing to bring the case.
While it turns on a seemingly dry procedural question, the consequences of the case could be far-reaching.
That is because without legal standing, there is no way for a political candidate to challenge election rules that invite cheating, said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.
According to Fitton, the Supreme Court is deciding nothing less than whether candidates can "sue to stop an election from being stolen.”
Russ Nobile, a senior attorney for Judicial Watch, noted that "many cases didn't go anywhere" in 2020 because of standing.
More than four years later, the legal picture remains muddled, but Judicial Watch hopes the Supreme Court will finally provide some clarity.
Otherwise, "it could be a green light to the left to engage in the manipulation of election practices," Fitton warned.
Some left-wing groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and League of Women Voters are supporting Bost's challenge on procedural grounds.
"While the League and its state and local affiliates have fought to advance state laws like the one challenged here, and thus vehemently oppose Petitioners’ position on the merits, they often find themselves in the same position that Representative Bost does here: injured because a challenged election rule materially interferes with their pre-existing core activities and drains resources that would otherwise be deployed elsewhere,” the groups wrote.
The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case, Rep. Michael J. Bost, Laura Pollastrini, and Susan Sweeney v. The Illinois State Board of Elections and Bernadette Matthews, on Wednesday.
