The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled to reopen a lawsuit challenging mail-in voting laws, filed by an Illinois congressman. This decision could pave the way for political candidates nationwide to more easily challenge election laws in their respective states, The Hill reported on the 14th (local time).

In a 7-2 decision, the justices ruled that Representative Mike Bost (Republican, Illinois) has the legal standing to sue over Illinois's practice of counting mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day.

This is an issue that President Donald Trump and his supporters have criticized. President Trump had issued an executive order to prevent mail-in ballots arriving after Election Day from being counted, but this Supreme Court ruling comes as the White House plans to appeal federal court decisions in Washington and Oregon that prohibited that executive order.

Chief Justice John Roberts authored the majority opinion, with two liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissenting.

Roberts wrote, "Simply put, a candidate is not a mere bystander to his or her own election. He or she has a concrete personal stake in how the election is administered and its outcome determined."

While the legality of Illinois's mail-in voting practice was not the subject of the Supreme Court's review, lower courts had ruled that the candidate lacked standing to sue because the outcome of the disputed ballots would not have significantly affected Bost's election.

Chief Justice Roberts stated that illegal election rules can harm candidates in various ways, including election loss, wasted resources, reduced vote share, and damage to reputation. However, he added that candidates also have an interest in fair election procedures.

Roberts wrote, "Regardless of winning or losing, candidates are harmed when the electoral process departs from the law. Thus, if a state runs its elections in a 'coin flip' manner, it is the candidate, whether unlikely to win or a certain winner, who is harmed."

The Chief Justice also said, "When illegal votes are counted or legal votes are discarded, public confidence in the electoral process is undermined. As a result, confidence in the elected representatives also diminishes, and this leads to concrete harms."

The Supreme Court's decision to allow Bost's lawsuit to proceed could open the door for candidates across the country, and across the political spectrum, to challenge election rules in court, The Hill observed.

Illinois had argued that allowing the justices to rule in Bost's favor could create "chaos" for election officials, as more than a dozen states and Washington D.C. permit mail-in ballots postmarked or certified by Election Day to be received afterward.

Justice Jackson, in her dissent, argued that "the Court is unnecessarily drawing the judiciary into the political arena by ignoring core constitutional requirements" and "opening the floodgates to election-related litigation."

However, Chief Justice Roberts dismissed claims that this ruling would encourage frivolous lawsuits. He wrote that the Court's decision in each state only pertains to a candidate's standing to challenge the rules governing ballot tabulation in an election.

Bost, who was elected to the House of Representatives to represent southern Illinois in 2014, chairs the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs. He stated after the ruling, "We won the initial battle, but the fight for election integrity continues."

The Republican National Committee (RNC) hailed the decision as a "significant victory" for election integrity and "basic accountability."

RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said, "Federal law is clear: ballots must be received on Election Day. That is why the RNC filed an amicus brief supporting Congressman Bost's lawsuit against Illinois's absurd practice of counting ballots received up to two weeks after Election Day. Today, the Court affirmed that candidates can challenge illegal election procedures in their own elections. This is important progress toward ending these unlawful schemes."

NNP=Sung Ku Hong, Editor-in-Chief / Special Dispatch NNP info@newsandpost.com