Orders Up

This week, the U.S. Supreme Court issued two decisions in favor of states’ authority over elections and the rule of law.

First, justices permitted states to continue counting mail ballots that arrive after Election Day, as long as they are mailed and postmarked on time. The 14 states that have similar policies follow the same principle: If voters mail their ballots by Election Day, their votes should be counted, even if they take a few days to arrive at election offices.

“Mail voting is secure, trusted, and widely used by voters across the political spectrum,” States United CEO Joanna Lydgate said in a statement applauding the ruling. “With this decision, states will continue to ensure that all their voters’ choices are counted and that the American people’s voice is heard.”

The court also issued a landmark decision striking down Trump’s unconstitutional executive order that sought to end birthright citizenship, the guarantee of American citizenship to nearly anyone born on U.S. soil. The president’s order directly contradicted the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which says plainly, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

Lydgate also hailed that ruling as a win for the rule of law. “The nation’s high court blocked yet another astounding attempt by President Trump to use executive authority that he doesn’t have,” she said. “His effort to override the Constitution would have shattered legal precedent and had a devastating impact on the states’ ability to serve their residents.”

Both rulings protect core constitutional principles: The president cannot singlehandedly change the Constitution, and elections are run by the states.

This Week in Democracy

• The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a Mississippi law that allows election officials to count mail ballots received up to five days after Election Day, as long as they are mailed and postmarked on time. Thirteen other states have similar grace period laws.

  The majority of justices rejected the argument that only mail ballots received by Election Day can be counted. Congress decided the date by which ballots must be cast, but “[s]tates have the power to set the date by which they must be received,” the majority wrote.

  Mail voting is a reliable way for millions of Americans to make their voices heard at the ballot box, including those who live in remote areas, who serve in the military overseas, who have disabilities, and more. Grace periods like Mississippi’s help ensure that as long as voters cast their ballot on time, their vote will be counted.

  ➡️ READ: Sharing the Facts About Mail Voting

• The Supreme Court also struck down President Trump’s executive order that sought to end birthright citizenship, the constitutional guarantee of American citizenship to all children born on American soil with few exceptions. Multiple lawsuits were filed against the order soon after Trump signed it on his first day in office, including by the attorneys general of 22 states. Courts put the order on hold almost immediately, and it has remained blocked since.

  Justices ruled that the order directly violated the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which says that “[a]ll persons born or naturalized in the United States … are citizens of the United States.”

  ➡️ READ: Sharing the Facts About Birthright Citizenship

• The Supreme Court allowed Trump to fire Rebecca Slaughter, a Democratic member of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) whom he appointed in 2018. The president tried to fire Slaughter early last year because her policy views did not completely align with his own.

  When creating the FTC and dozens of other agencies, Congress designed them to be independent and made up of bipartisan members to insulate them from politics. But the court’s decision this week gives the president vastly more power over those agencies and allows him to reshape key government regulators.

  In a separate case, the court temporarily blocked Trump from firing Lisa Cook, one of the Federal Reserve’s leaders who has refused to lower interest rates as quickly as the president has demanded. Trump claimed that his attempt to fire Cook was justified based on unproven allegations of mortgage fraud—allegations which his administration has made against other rivals of the president, too.

  “I am grateful for this decision, not for my own sake, but for the sake of the American people, whose economic well-being depends on a central bank that answers to its mission, not political intimidation,” Cook said in a statement. “For as long as I serve at the Federal Reserve, I will continue to uphold the principle of political independence in service to all Americans.”

  ➡️ READ: How Politicized Prosecutions Undermine the Rule of Law

• Federal judges dismissed the Justice Department’s lawsuits seeking voters’ private data from election officials in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Hampshire. The judge in Pennsylvania wrote in her decision that public statements by Trump administration officials made clear that their goal was to conduct a “fishing expedition,” and that they “hoped to advance unsubstantiated claims of non-citizen voting.”

  Judges have now decided 11 of the 31 lawsuits brought by the Justice Department against states for voters’ information; each has rejected the department’s demands.

  ➡️ READ: Sharing the Facts About Federal Efforts to Compile State Voter Data

State of the States

In Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Minnesota, the Justice Department sued state officials, seeking to force them to turn over the private data of their residents who applied for federal food assistance.

State officials pushed back on the federal government’s demands. A spokesperson for Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said in a statement to CBS News that the governor’s administration takes its responsibility to protect residents’ private information seriously.

“By suing Pennsylvania instead of working with us to combat fraud, the Trump Administration is proving once again that they are more interested in dividing Americans and kicking people off [the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)] than actually tackling these important issues,” Shapiro’s spokesperson said.

A Minnesota official said that the Trump administration’s “demand for this volume of data is unprecedented, threatens the privacy of millions of families, and ignores long-standing restrictions on the use and redisclosure of SNAP data.”

➡️ READ: What’s Breaking Through About Politically Motivated Cuts to Social Services

In Wisconsin, federal immigration agents ramped up operations. Federal agents arrested 39 people, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Witnesses said agents used some of the same brutal tactics as seen in other cities: breaking car windows, pointing guns at people, and more.

Following the surges of ICE operations in other states, the Milwaukee Common Council passed a city ordinance earlier this year prohibiting law enforcement officers from wearing face coverings, except when necessary in cold weather. Nonetheless, videos from this past weekend in Milwaukee show agents wearing them.

“If you’re a law enforcement officer, there is no need for you to be wearing a mask, especially in 90-degree weather,” Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson said to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “Shame on ICE. Shame on the Trump administration.”

➡️ MORE: Survey: Americans Disapprove of Federal Agents’ Enforcement Tactics