Supreme Court Turns Down Request to Allow All Texans to Vote by Mail

[mbusby]

Source: New York Times

Adam Liptak
June 26, 2020, 5:25 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court said on Friday that it would not require Texas to let all eligible voters vote by mail.

The Texas Democratic Party and several voters had urged the court to reinstate a federal trial judge’s injunction requiring state officials to allow all voters, and not just those who are 65 or older, to submit their ballots by mail. They relied on the 26th Amendment, which lowered the voting age to 18 and said the right to vote “shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of age.”

The court’s brief order gave no reasons, which is typical when the justices rule on emergency applications, and there were no noted dissents. Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued a statement saying that the question in the case raised “weighty but seemingly novel questions regarding the 26th Amendment.”

But she said the court was right not to address those questions in the context of an emergency application. “I hope,” she wrote, “that the court of appeals will consider the merits of the legal issues in this case well in advance of the November election.”

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/26/us/supreme-court-texas-vote-by-mail.html

[hlthe2b]

1. Should have gone to Court of Appeals first--that's all this is saying.

[edhopper]

2. And if the CoA had ruled for them

Texas would have gone to the SCOTUS anyway, probably delaying it until after the election.

No win situation here.

[hlthe2b]

3. Of course, but they would not have wasted time prematurely going to SCOTUS

DO I believe SCOTUS SHOULD be taking such cases on an emergency basis because of the timelines before the election? Sure. We all do. But that isn't how SCOTUS works.

[LeftInTX]

7. They did go to the Court of Appeals

[OneCrazyDiamond]

4. What does being 18 have to do with voting by mail.

That seems like 2 different things related to voting. How old you have to be, and by what method.

[thucythucy]

5. The idea is that people who are of voting age should not be discriminated against

because of their age.

Basically, one rule should apply for all.

If people over 65 are given a special benefit--an easier and safer way to vote--this inherently discriminates against voters who are 18 to 65. It makes people over 65 a special category who have an easier time voting, which means their vote is somehow more valuable than those under 65.

Why should people over 65 get an automatic special privilege?

[mbusby]

6. That's easy...

...most of those over 65 (not including me) vote republican.

[LeftInTX]

9. But is that privilege a discrimination?

The military really has a privilege. They are allowed an extra week for their ballots to return. Everyone else's ballot has to be at the elections dept by 7 pm election day...no exceptions, except for the military.

(I'm in Texas)

The problem is this privilege is a political issue. It is not necessarily a "right". I think everyone should be able to vote by mail, but this is a conservative court who upheld the Texas Voter ID law. The voter ID was argued as a poll tax, but the conservative USSC didn't see it that way.

[OneCrazyDiamond]

10. Thank you.

Missed 65 and older get to. That is the connection to age.

[LeftInTX]

8. I wish the TDP would have made this about Covid 19 and not the 26th Amendment

We were likely to get an injunction against Ken Paxton and the State of Texas.

No one filed on behalf of election workers and possible collapse of the electoral system due to Covid 19. Instead it is all about "voter age". All 18 year olds can vote, they just can't vote by mail. But there's nothing in the constitution that states voting by mail is a right. This is a conservative court who upheld the Texas Voter ID law and basically gutted the VRA. It's not going to make a permanent change to the Texas Election Code.

But if the suit had been filed on behalf of the health of all voters and election workers, I bet we would be getting somewhere. The results would have been temporary, but this all started because of Covid 19 anyway.

[NotHardly]

11. i JUST WANT TO KNOW HOW MUCH 'bOOFOOBOY' got paid or will be for smoking "ass"

I mean, he said he likes drunks...