Your results may vary: Unintended consequences for Republicans
This is surely not SCOTUSblog, but let’s look at two significant court rulings from yesterday:
- The U.S. Supreme Court blocked a lower court’s order that required the Census Bureau to continue its count through the original deadline of October 31. In August, the Trump Administration said they were moving the deadline back to September 30, ostensibly to allow additional time to finish the calculations and reporting that is required to be sent to Congress by the end of the year.
- A three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit of Appeals ruled that Texas is within the law to allow only one ballot drop-off location per county for the upcoming election. Some counties wanted to set up additional drop-off points for ballots but Gov. Greg Abbott ordered a limit of one location per county.
In both cases, Republicans claimed that their position was the prudent one, noting the deadline crunch in the census case and ballot security issues in the drop-off location case. Opponents claimed that Republicans were trying to restrict the electoral power of minorities, particularly those of Hispanic heritage, by deliberately undercounting them in the census (which could result in states losing seats in Congress, among other issues) and making it more difficult for them to cast their votes.
(more…)