JUST IN: Supreme Court Rules States Can Count Mail-In Ballots Arriving After Election Day

The Supreme Court sided with Mississippi on Monday in a 5-4 ruling that the state can continue to count mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day, rebuffing President Donald Trump’s long-held criticism of the practice.

Fox News anchor and chief legal correspondent Shannon Bream reported on the ruling live outside of the Supreme Court as it was handed down.

“All right, guys, this is not a win for Republicans who were challenging this Mississippi state law, which allows mail-in ballots to be counted after Election Day if they come in postmarked and meeting the state requirements. It’s a 5–4 loss for Republicans, in an interesting cobbling together of who wrote on this. Justice Barrett wrote the opinion; Justice Roberts joined her, along with Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson — so those five stuck together on this,” Bream began, adding:

The dissent comes from Justice Alito; Thomas, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh joined him. Essentially, what the majority said is that these federal statutes setting Election Day don’t prescribe — or they don’t stand in conflict with — states that want to say, “Okay, we have a procedure to count ballots after Election Day.” Justice Alito, writing for the dissent, says today’s decision is inconsistent with the terms of the Election Day statutes, contemporary election law principles, two centuries of historical practice, and the case law on the question presented. So if you’re a state out there that counts ballots after Election Day based on your state law, that state law will stand. We await more opinions now, guys — more to come.

“So Shannon, that means, for example, in California, where it takes them forever to count ballots, this doesn’t help that situation at all, right?” followed up anchor Dana Perino.

“It does not, because basically they’re deferring to the states on when they can count those ballots after Election Day. They say the federal statute may set Election Day, but for these states that have allowed procedures outside of that — in the way that they collect, and how and when they collect, those ballots — those state laws are going to be good. Mississippi was the state here, but yes, this will apply to places like California as well,” Bream replied.

“Shannon, I’ve learned from you that you go to the dissent first. Have you had time to do that? And if so, what did the justices who disagreed with this ruling find?” pressed Bill Hemmer.

“Well, yeah, so Justice Alito leads them, with Thomas, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh. And they just say — Alito says there’s a situation here in which it doesn’t comply, he thinks, with our understanding. And remember, during the actual arguments on this case, he said, “We have Election Day — the word means something, like you would say ‘birthday’ or ‘Independence Day’ — it’s that day.” He said things should be consummated by Election Day; that was his argument. So, not surprising that he is the one writing the dissent — he was the most vocal during the argument. But he says it just doesn’t comport with the law as he understands it. And he’s got three who agree with him, but you need more than that. So again, it was Justices Barrett and Roberts who joined with the three liberal justices for this loss for Republicans challenging this Mississippi count,” Bream concluded.

This is a developing story and has been updated.

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