🚨 US Supreme Court move SURGES into national spotlight

This is Democracy Watch. Mark, there is. a headline on democracy docket, your. website, that caught my attention uh. that absolutely is worth talking about. here. I'm going to put the headline. right here on the screen. Scotus, the. Supreme Court could get a chance to. disenfranchise voters whose ballots. arrive after election day. So, can you. expand on what is happening right here. as far as the Supreme Court is concerned. and the extent to which it would impact. mail-in voters? Yeah, this is critical. for everyone listening to this video to. pay attention and share this with your. friends. The Republican party has had as.

part of its voter suppression mission. for years to throw away as many mail-in. ballots as possible. And one of the ways. they want to do that is to say that. voters who cast their vote put it in the. mail before election day. But where. because the mail may be slow or or. whatever, the ballot comes in say the. day after the election. Now it's been. postmarked. The postal service knows. when it was mailed. The election office. knows when when it was mailed. There is. no question. This is a lawful vote.

There is no question that this ballot. was cast on or before election day. The. only issue is whether it was received on. election day, before election day, or. the day or two after. And Republicans. have had it one of their top priorities. to prevent these ballots from counting. My team and I, we have litigated dozens. and dozens of lawsuits to prevent these. ballots from being disenfranchised. Well, the Republican National Committee. came up with a scheme in 2023 to file a.

lawsuit, not in a swing state, not in a. battleground state, not even in a blue. state, but in Mississippi, which has. allows for these kinds of ballot to file. a lawsuit in Mississippi to try to throw. these ballots out hoping that it would. escape the attention of anyone because. after all, who's you know, they figure. who's paying attention to lawsuits filed. in Mississippi? Well, my legal team and. I, we caught it. we intervene to defend. the state of Mississippi. Uh because you. know, who knows whether the Republicans. in Mississippi would defend the law in. Mississippi. And that case is now.

progressing up the courts. And the state. of Mississippi recently indicated that. they are going to try to get this before. the US Supreme Court. And this has major. implications for voters throughout the. country, for voting rights throughout. the country. but also it has major. implications for Donald Trump's. executive order which targets these. ballots and relies on this Mississippi. case to argue that he has the power to. ban these ballots from being counted. nationwide.

Now you had mentioned that these kind of. cases have been litigated before. So I. presume that there's already precedent. at least from the appellet court level. And the second part of that is would. that matter as far as this Supreme Court. is concerned? Does that carry any. weight? Yeah. So, look, the Republican. efforts around this have failed. everywhere until they got to the fifth. circuit in this Mississippi case. So, they basically found one of the most. conservative uh uh jurisdictions that. they could in the fifth circuit as an as.

a vehicle to get this thing up to the. Supreme Court. That's exactly right. And. I think that what they had hoped for, which is what they did, is that they. would sue a reliably red state so that. if they if the RNC lost before the fifth. circuit, they could appeal, right? If. the and and and if they won, as they did. before the fifth circuit, perhaps. Mississippi would appeal. Now, I don't. know that that's why miss maybe. Mississippi. But it it makes perfect. sense because either way whether you. have either way if you have if you have. basically on both sides um people who.

who are who are aligned in their idea. that they want this thing to get up to. the Supreme Court you go to a friendly. jurisdiction a friendly uh appellet. court jurisdiction and you say and you. say either way whether it's us who wins. you guys appeal it up to the circuit. court. If it's you who wins we'll appeal. it and then once we get to the cir uh. the the the appeals court whichever one. loses gets it up to the Supreme Court. This way we're guaranteed to know that. it can get up there. And either way, we're both like, you know, we're we're. we're both on the same team here, knowing full well that we want this.

issue to just go to the highest court in. the land, right? So, look, I don't know. that that's what's going on with. Mississippi, but there are certainly. some signs to it. For example, after the. RNC filed their lawsuit, the Mississippi. legislature took steps to repeal the. law. I mean, after all, the Republicans. control the Mississippi legislature. They're like, "Okay, RNC, apparently you. don't want this law in Mississippi. We'll repeal it." And then suddenly. suddenly at the very last minute the. governor, you know, was getting all. getting the pen ready to sign. All of a. sudden they they they repeal they.

repealed the law that they passed and it. did not go through. So certainly the. state of Mississippi was acting like. they wanted this case to proceed and. ultimately Mississippi is appealing it. to the Supreme Court. But here's the. good news for folks. As I mentioned, my. law firm and I my law firm and I are in. this case. We intervened at an early. stage to make sure that this would not. just be the state of Mississippi and the. and the Republican party. So, we are. going to fight tooth and nail if this. case gets taken by the Supreme Court to. prevent this from happening. But Brian, there is another critical uh element of.

this that has taken place in recent. weeks that I think everyone needs to be. pay attention to, which is that Donald. Trump then signed an executive order to. try to ban these ballots from counting. nationwide. and cited this Mississippi. case as the predicate for him being able. to do that. How uh enforceable is that executive. order? I mean, is that only enforceable. in the event is is it like a like a. trigger executive order where as soon as.

Republicans hope this gets upheld in the. Supreme Court, then the executive order. goes into effect nationwide? No, he's. claiming he has this authority. Now, he. doesn't. where my law firm and I were. also suing over the executive order. saying Donald Trump doesn't have the. authority and you and I have done a. video on this Donald Trump doesn't have. the authority under the constitution to. decide how states set their laws for. elections. Uh it's not within the power. of the executive branch. But it is an. interesting again I'm not you know I am. not a conspiracy uh guy by nature but it.

is an interesting thing that you know. all of these things are going on. Donald. Trump is trying to effectuate this. through executive order cites this case. out of the fifth circuit. Mississippi is. appealing uh or seeking review by the. states by the US Supreme Court. As I. said, we are going to be in that process. um to make sure that uh that that you. know that that we are making the. strongest arguments possible. But also. the follow-on effects of this, Bryant, if the if Trump gets his way, if the.

Republican National Committee gets its. way, what they are saying is federal law. decrees there is one election day and. therefore ballots that come in. afterwards can't count. Well, you know. what else goes away in that. circumstance? what early voting because that's not. done on election day either, right? Mail-in voting because they fill out the. ballots not on election day. This is a. Trojan horse by the Republican party to. try to undermine everything except for.

voting on election day. And honestly, if. you listen to Donald Trump and take him. literally and seriously, the big mistake. that the legacy media makes, they say, "Don't pay attention to what he. literally says, but only what but but. but but just sort of the general. spirit." He has said he only believes. people ought to be able to vote in. person on election day. Donald Trump. wants to take away your voting rights. because Donald Trump knows that the. greatest threat to him and his. authoritarian impulse is that you in. 2026, you won't be able to vote early.

You won't be able to vote by mail. Your. ballots will be thrown out. There'll be. all of these new restrictions. The proof. of citizenship nonsense will knock out. young voters and firsttime registrants. and women uh who change their name due. to marriage. This is all part of a. common plan. But this case going to the. US Supreme Court is a critical element. of that and that's why uh it is. important that everyone pay attention to. it. Two questions here. A, when will it. be argued? And B, are the implications.

here that if the Supreme Court rules in. in the RNC's favor, then that also lends. itself to reason that the Supreme Court. might also uphold this idea that's being. per perpetuated by Trump's executive. order that they're kind of one and the. same. If they if they agree on with one. principle, they're likely to agree on. the other. Yeah. I mean, I like I said, I think this is this dovetales directly. together. Um, you know, the fact is that. Donald Trump's executive order is. hinging its legitimacy, its theory on.

this case. It is no surprise then that. the Republican National Committee has. been advancing this case. And it is no. surprise that that that if the Supreme. Court takes this case, it will be heard. in no October or November or December of. this year and in place for the midterm. elections in 2026. like like you know. again this is not a conspiracy theory. This is just a concerted plan and effort. by the Republican party to make it.

harder to vote and easier for them to. cheat. And the harder to vote part are. all of these voter suppression laws. We. all know what the easier to cheat part. is. That's the election subversion. That's the you know un putting election. deniers in office. And Donald Trump's. got a lot to do lot to say about that. also. And I suspect we'll see additional. executive orders on that front in the. future. But there is a massive voter. suppression war machine that continues. to grind away day in day out and it is. largely funded by the Republican.

National Committee and by right-wing. donors and this case sits at the center. of. that. Can you explain to me what the. legal rationale or the or the statutory. rationale is? Because the the the. constitution doesn't say anything about. mail ballots or or or or anything like. that. And so what would what would their. what would the legal basis for them. being able to decide out of whole cloth. that suddenly you know the the the. specific details of of certain ballots. suddenly aren't aren't valid anymore.

that that you can't use mail-in voting. anymore which is something that we've. used for decades in this country. So I'm. just I'm just curious like do they have. a leg to stand on legally speaking? Yeah. So their legal theory is quite. simple and extraordinarily dangerous. Their legal theory is that federal law. sets election day for federal elections. as the Tuesday following the first. Monday in November. Okay, we all know. that that that is that that's election. day. And they read that statute which.

just says what I just said. That's it. They read that to mean that that is the. only day in which the election can take. place and therefore ballots can't be. counted afterwards. Now, what is the. implication of that? Number one, it has. implications obviously for mail-in. ballots that are received after election. day, even if they're cast before. Number. two, it would potentially mean that no. ballots could be counted after election. day. Right? We've seen when did when did. we hear Donald Trump say stop the count? Right. Remember the whole red mirage? Uh.

right. That's all about this notion that. once the clock strikes midnight, they. should stop counting. Yeah. And so this. is part of that philosophical false. legal argument. I mentioned number the. third implication. No early voting. Right? If election day is just the one. day, it means you can't vote early. They. are trying to pass a radical adjustment. to what voting is in the United States. It is a single day. It is in person. It.

is all done on paper ballots. All votes. are tallied by hand on paper ballots. And when the clock strikes midnight, perhaps you have to stop counting. Yeah. Then the election deniers come in and. decide what what ballots should be. certified and what ballots shouldn't be. certified. If you think this is. fanciful, if you think this is not. possible, go back what they were saying. in 2020. Yeah. Or watch what they're. doing in North Carolina right now. What. they're doing in North Carolina right. now. Yeah. Um and and finally, let's.

finish off with this. You'd mentioned. that you had inter intervened on behalf. of the state of Mississippi. Are you. litigating this case at the Supreme. Court? Yeah. So, we represent some great. private uh organizations that have. joined the lawsuit, intervene to defend. the Mississippi law. So, we are on the. same side as Mississippi. And again, we'll see. Maybe Mississippi will will. aggressively defend this lawsuit. I hope. they do. I hope they make all the best. arguments. But we will also be in the. courtroom. We will also be sub we will. also be filing briefs. We will also be.

arguing. And this is a critical critical. case. You know, I have pointed out. before I have argued four cases in the. Supreme Court. I am I am 4 and0 in the. Supreme Court. I never predict an. outcome. Every case you have to treat. like you are you are in jeopardy of. losing. Um but I promise you this is a. case that we will take very very. seriously. If the Supreme Court hears. it, um you can expect to see me in. court. Well, if if ever there was uh an. impetus for folks who are watching right. now to support the invaluable work that. you and your team are doing, it's it's. exactly that. So, I'm going to put a.

link on this screen and also in the post. description to democracy docket. That's. the news outlet Mark founded to focus on. everything voting in elections of which. this is a major component. So, again, to. show some support for Mark and his team, please sign up. Um, not not only a great. way to support him and his team, but. also uh a a great resource in terms of. fearless independent journalism at a. moment where it's especially needed. So, again, link on this screen and also in. the post description of this video. I'm. Brian Teller Cohen. I'm Mark Elias. This. is Democracy Watch. [Music].