The U.S. Supreme Court handed Republicans a significant legal victory on Wednesday, breathing new life into a long-running challenge to Illinois’ mail-in ballot rules and reopening a broader national debate over election integrity. In a decisive 7–2 ruling, the Court determined that Rep. Michael Bost (R-Ill.) has the legal right to challenge a state law that allows absentee ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted for as long as two weeks afterward.
The ruling does not strike down the Illinois law outright, but it clears a major procedural hurdle that had previously blocked the case from moving forward. Lower courts had dismissed Bost’s lawsuit, arguing that he lacked “standing”—the legal requirement to show a direct injury necessary to bring a case. The Supreme Court firmly rejected that reasoning.
Chief Justice John Roberts authored the majority opinion, making clear that candidates for public office have a legitimate stake in how votes are counted in their elections. According to the Court, that interest exists regardless of whether the rules directly impact a candidate’s likelihood of winning.
“Candidates have a concrete and particularized interest in the rules that govern the counting of votes in their elections, regardless whether those rules harm their electoral prospects or increase the cost of their campaigns,” Roberts noted in the ruling. “Their interest extends to the integrity of the election—and the democratic process by which they earn or lose the support of the people they seek to represent.”
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