{"id":2493258,"date":"2025-10-01T11:17:02","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T15:17:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/supreme-court-weighs-if-gop-candidate-can-sue-over-mail-ballot-law\/"},"modified":"2025-10-01T11:20:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T15:20:10","slug":"supreme-court-weighs-if-gop-candidate-can-sue-over-mail-ballot-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/supreme-court-weighs-if-gop-candidate-can-sue-over-mail-ballot-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court weighs if GOP candidate can sue over mail ballot law"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fsupreme-court-weighs-if-gop-candidate-can-sue-over-mail-ballot-law%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2493258&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The supreme Court is set to hear the case *Bost v. Illinois Board of Elections*, which centers on whether a GOP candidate, Rep. Mike Bost (R-IL), has the legal standing to challenge an Illinois law that permits mail-in ballots to be counted if postmarked by Election Day and received up to 14 days afterward. The case does not question the law&#8217;s constitutionality but focuses on whether Bost can sue over the state&#8217;s election procedures. Lower courts ruled that Bost lacked standing, leading him to appeal to the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/brutal-irony-blue-state-businesses-in-birthplace-of-defund-the-police-movement-sue-city-over-poor-policing\/\" title=\"Blue-state businesses in the birthplace of the &#039;Defund the Police&#039; movement sue city over inadequate policing\">lawsuit raises broader questions<\/a> about when federal candidates can bring election-related lawsuits and how courts should handle challenges to state election laws. Advocates for bost, including Judicial Watch attorneys, argue the case could clarify conflicting rulings on election challenges. The case has drawn unusual support from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-administration-waives-ethics-rules-for-former-lobbyists\/\" title=\"Biden Administration Waives Ethics ...s For Former Lobbyists\">left-leaning groups<\/a> like the ACLU and the League of women Voters, who back Bost on standing despite opposing his challenge to the mail-in ballot law.<\/p>\n<p>Illinois officials contend that Bost has not demonstrated a specific harm from the law and that the lower courts&#8217; decisions should stand. The Supreme Court will hear arguments on October 8. This case is part of a broader set of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/battleground-ballots-2024-election-to-test-michigans-new-voting-laws-washington-examiner\/\" title=\"Battleground ...: 2024 ... to test Michigan&#039;s new voting ... - Washington Examiner\">election-related disputes<\/a> before the Court that may <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >substantially impact future elections<\/a>, alongside another case from Louisiana challenging similar late ballot counting rules. <br \/> <!DOCTYPE html><br \/>\n<?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><html><body><\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">Supreme Court to decide if GOP candidate can sue over Illinois mail ballot law<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_2360074\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/supreme-court\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Supreme Court<\/a> will soon hear a case involving a challenge to a law allowing late-arriving <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/mail-in-voting\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">mail-in ballots<\/a>. However, the dispute before the justices will not be over whether the law is constitutional, but if the candidate has standing to sue over it.<\/p>\n<p>In <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/supreme-court\/3428235\/supreme-court-mail-in-ballots-after-election-day-gop-challenge\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Bost v. Illinois Board of Elections<\/a><\/em>, the question of whether a federal candidate has standing to sue over state election laws governing his election will come before the high court. Rep. Mike Bost (R-IL) led a lawsuit filed against Illinois officials in 2022, alleging the state law that allows mail-in ballots to be collected 14 days after Election Day, as long as they are postmarked by Election Day, is unconstitutional. Lower federal courts ruled against Bost, finding he lacked standing while not reaching a decision on the merits of the case, prompting him to seek review from the Supreme Court on the standing issue.<\/p>\n<div class=\"recommended-stories\">\n<h2>Recommended Stories<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/supreme-court\/3828516\/doj-asks-supreme-court-to-review-birthright-citizenship\/\">DOJ asks Supreme Court to review birthright citizenship order as high court takes on Trump cases this term<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/supreme-court\/3822946\/supreme-court-petitions-long-conference-new-term\/\">Supreme Court sifts through thousands of petitions at &#8216;long conference&#8217; ahead of new term<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/supreme-court\/3827098\/supreme-court-allows-trump-halt-4-billion-foreign-aid\/\">Supreme Court allows Trump to halt $4 billion in foreign aid for now<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>Russ Nobile, a senior attorney for Judicial Watch who will argue for Bost in the case, told reporters on Tuesday that they hope the Supreme Court will clarify mixed rulings on standing in this and other cases that have emerged in the federal courts since 2020.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;This should go a long way to answering those questions as to when do candidates and when do federal courts hear these types of election challenges when states are alleged to violate federal law,&rdquo; Nobile said.<\/p>\n<p>Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, believes the case comes down to whether &ldquo;a candidate can sue to stop an election from being stolen.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;If you can&rsquo;t sue to count ballots you think are being counted illicitly because they got there too late &mdash; you&rsquo;re denied that in federal court &mdash; the idea that any outrageous rule the states come up with in terms of counting federal ballots can&rsquo;t be challenged in court, all bets are off,&rdquo; Fitton told reporters on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>Honest Elections Project Vice President Chad Ennis <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/in_focus\/3805459\/supreme-court-poised-shake-up-midterm-elections\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">previously<\/a> told the&nbsp;<em>Washington Examiner<\/em>&nbsp;that if the Supreme Court finds no standing for federal candidates to sue over the laws, it would have &ldquo;wide implications.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;It makes these things harder to challenge, almost impossible, and that&rsquo;s really the problem if a candidate doesn&rsquo;t have standing to sue on election rules,&rdquo; Ennis said. &ldquo;Who does at that point? It gets really hard to think of how anyone can get in court.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Bost has gained some unlikely allies in his fight to convince the high court that he has standing to file a lawsuit over the Illinois election law. A group of left-leaning groups, including the ACLU and League of Women Voters, filed a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/DocketPDF\/24\/24-568\/368297\/20250910122850269_24-568%20Bost%20v%20Illinois%20Amicus%20Brief.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">brief<\/a> in support of the Republican congressman&rsquo;s argument regarding standing, while noting they are not opposed to the mail-in ballot law he is suing over.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;While the League and its state and local affiliates have fought to advance state laws like the one challenged here, and thus vehemently oppose Petitioners&rsquo; position on the merits, they often find themselves in the same position that Representative Bost does here: injured because a challenged election rule materially interferes with their pre-existing core activities and drains resources that would otherwise be deployed elsewhere,&rdquo; the left-leaning groups&rsquo; brief said, while urging the high court to reverse the lower court&rsquo;s ruling on standing.<\/p>\n<p>Illinois officials argued in their brief that Bost failed to show any material harm to him caused by the mail-in ballot law and that the lawsuit should not hold up, as lower courts have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/army-vet-plans-to-appeal-ninth-circuit-ruling-against-gun-carry\/\" title=\"Army Vet Plans to Appeal Ninth Circuit Ruling Against Gun Carry\">previously ruled<\/a>. State officials also claim the lower court&rsquo;s decision would not &ldquo;impede candidates&rsquo; access to the courts or push election litigation to the days and weeks surrounding Election Day.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;A political candidate, like any other plaintiff seeking to invoke Article III jurisdiction, must demonstrate a concrete and particularized injury traceable to a challenged election rule, not merely voice objection to that rule. Petitioners failed to do so,&rdquo; the Illinois officials&rsquo; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/DocketPDF\/24\/24-568\/370696\/20250826100706564_Bost%20-%20Brief%20for%20Respondents%20-%20PDFA.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">brief<\/a> said.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/supreme-court\/3820486\/advocates-warn-colorado-conversion-therapy-ban-supreme-court-blatant-censorship\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ADVOCATES WARN COLORADO &lsquo;CONVERSION THERAPY&rsquo; BAN IN SUPREME COURT CASE IS &lsquo;BLATANT CENSORSHIP&rsquo;<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Supreme Court is slated to hear arguments in the case on Oct. 8, the third day of oral arguments for the high court&rsquo;s new term. <span style=\"box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;\">It will be one of a trio of election and voting-related cases that&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/in_focus\/3805459\/supreme-court-poised-shake-up-midterm-elections\/\" target=\"_blank\">could have significant impacts<\/a>&nbsp;on upcoming elections.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>While the constitutionality of counting mail-in ballots that arrive far past Election Day is not before the high court in this case, the justices are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/justice\/3468137\/election-security-groups-supreme-court-late-ballots\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">considering a petition<\/a> to hear the merits of a similar case over a Louisiana law. The Louisiana law allows mail-in ballots to be counted if they are received up to five business days after Election Day and have been postmarked by Election Day. The petition in <em>Watson v. Republican National Committee<\/em> asks the Supreme Court to consider striking down laws allowing ballots received after Election Day to be counted.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <script data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/cdn-cgi\/scripts\/5c5dd728\/cloudflare-static\/email-decode.min.js\"><\/script> <\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Supreme Court to rule if GOP candidate can sue over Illinois mail ballot law<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2638,"featured_media":2493259,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/AP25267558633848.jpg?w=696","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[33739,40578,64387,32275,32570],"class_list":["post-2493258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-election-law","tag-gop-candidate","tag-mail-ballot-law","tag-supreme-court","tag-voting-rights"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/AP25267558633848.jpg?w=696","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2493258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2638"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2493258"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2493258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2493262,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2493258\/revisions\/2493262"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2493259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2493258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2493258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2493258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}