Conservative justices Samuel Alito and Amy Coney Barrett clashed on Monday in a Supreme Court ruling involving mail-in voting, which was considered a rejection of the Republican Party’s attack on mail-in ballots.
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Coney Barrett wrote the opinion in the 5-4 ruling in Watson v. Republican National Committee that upheld a Mississippi law that allows mail-in ballots to arrive after Election Day. And in a scathing dissent, Alito used her own words to argue against the decision. Fellow conservative justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas joined the dissent.
“To say that this is not the most likely explanation of States’ thought processes would be ‘a delicately put understatement,'” Alito wrote.
The court ruling was deemed a defeat for Trump and Republicans, who have argued that the method should not be used before the midterm elections in November, according to CNN. Trump has asserted that there is widespread fraud involving mail-in ballots, despite no evidence of these claims.
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Alito argued that “today’s decision leaves open opportunities for voter fraud that may further undermine Americans’ faith in the integrity of this country’s elections.”
“It is undeniable that a prohibition on counting late-arriving ballots would provide an additional hurdle for bad actors seeking to stuff ballot boxes when early election results suggest a tight race. The majority incorrectly removes this safeguard from federal law,” Alito wrote.
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