Supreme Court allows deadline extension for Pennsylvania mail-in ballots News
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Supreme Court allows deadline extension for Pennsylvania mail-in ballots

In 4-4 decision Monday, the US Supreme Court denied the application by the Republican Party of Pennsylvania for stay of an order by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court extending the deadline for receiving absentee and mail-in ballots.

Under the Pennsylvania court’s order, the absentee ballots must be mailed before or on Election Day and received within the following three days. If a ballot’s postmark is missing or illegible, it will be counted unless a preponderance of the evidence indicates it was cast after Election Day. Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro argued in his brief to the court that the decision was consistent with the treatment of ballots cast overseas before Election Day and received afterward. Shapiro also insisted that the state constitution gives the Pennsylvania court the authority to make such decisions, especially during a global pandemic.

The US Supreme Court’s decision is consistent with the deference it shows to state courts on interpretations of state law. Further, the US Constitution gives states the authority to set the time, place and manner of congressional elections.

Democrats have requested 100,000 more absentee ballots than Republicans. This disparity has led some to accuse state Republicans of attempting voter suppression.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, murdered by Henry II's knights

On December 29, 1170, Archbishop Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by knights acting in the name of Henry II.

Becket and Henry had been entangled in a power struggle over, among other things, criminal jurisdiction over clergy. Read a contemporary account of the murder of Thomas Becket.

Texas attains US statehood

On December 29, 1845, Texas became the twenty-eighth state to join the United States of America when US President James K. Polk signed the Ordinance of Annexation. Texas had a complicated path to statehood because it had formerly been part of Mexico and then an independent republic. The US Congress passed the Annexation of the Republic of Texas Joint Resolution on March 1, 1845. Voters in Texas then approved the Ordinance of Annexation in October, before it was approved by the US Congress and signed into law by President Polk on this day in 1845. The US Supreme Court later ruled in Texas v. White that, despite its unique path to statehood, Texas did not have the right to secede from the union.