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The Georgia Supreme Court has ruled on a lawsuit that was filed in December 2020 seeking to review absentee ballots from Fulton County.
The state’s highest court has sent the case back to a court of appeals for further action on the suit, which seeks to unseal 147,000 absentee ballots for inspection and review in order to determine if any of them were illegitimate. The suit was filed by nine Georgia voters who alleged fraud occurred in the state’s biggest county.
“A judge dismissed the case since no fraud was found in the 2020 election. Over the years, it has winded its way through the justice system as the group of voters pushes to check the absentee ballots. Ultimately, the Georgia Supreme Court remanded Caroline Jeffords v. Fulton County. Now the case goes back to the court of appeals, which is tasked with taking another look at the argument,” 11 Alive reported.
“In its order, the court said the case should be under reconsideration in light of Sons of Confederate Veterans v. Henry County Board of Commissioners, a case concerning confederate monuments. Earlier this year, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that the Sons of Confederate Veterans organization doesn’t qualify as a ‘community stakeholder,’ thus lower courts were in the right to dismiss their claim for injury and damages as the county board sought to remove confederate statues,” the outlet continued.
“Now the justices are saying with this new precedent, the appeals court could look at the Fulton County case with new information to consider,” the outlet added.
Meanwhile, North Carolina’s closely-watched election case is underway before the U.S. Supreme Court, which could have a profound impact on the 2024 presidential race.
“Conservative Supreme Court justices appeared skeptical Wednesday about a state court’s decision to strike down Republican-drawn congressional districts in North Carolina, but it seemed unlikely a majority would embrace a broad theory that could upend election law nationwide,” according to the New Yorker.
“The appeal brought by North Carolina Republicans asks the court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, to embrace a hitherto obscure legal argument called the ‘independent state legislature’ theory, which could strip state courts of the power to strike down certain election laws enacted by state legislatures,” the New Yorker added.
“The independent state legislature argument hinges on language in the Constitution that says election rules ‘shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof.’ Supporters of the theory, which has never been endorsed by the Supreme Court, say the language supports the notion that, when it comes to federal election rules, legislatures have ultimate power under state law, potentially irrespective of potential constraints imposed by state constitutions,” the outlet added.
“Backed by Republican leaders at the N.C. General Assembly, the crux of the argument is that they and all other state legislators should have much broader power to write election laws, with courts mostly not allowed to stop them by ruling their actions unconstitutional. They’ve been tight-lipped about the case since filing it this spring, mostly preferring to avoid commenting on it to reporters and instead doing their talking through legal briefs,” the Herald-Sun reported.
“Beyond redistricting, the case also has the potential to change how North Carolina and the 49 other states handle everything from early voting and mail-in ballots rules to voter ID, recounts, post-election audits, and anything else that could possibly affect an election,” the Herald-Sun noted further.
Democrats are out in full force pushing their usual talking points by claiming it could “end democracy.”
Kathay Feng, who leads the anti-gerrymandering group Common Cause, called it “the case of the century.”
“It is a case that asserts a bizarre and fabricated reading of the United States Constitution … to create a situation where elections are already rigged from the start,” she claimed.
Eric Holder, a Democrat and former U.S. attorney general under Barack Obama, said it “should keep every American up at night.”
Michael Luttig, a Republican and retired federal judge who George W. Bush considered nominating to the Supreme Court, recently called it “the single most important case on American democracy” of the last 250 years.
