AUSTIN, Texas _ The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday rejected the Texas' Democrats initial request to allow expanded mail voting during the COVID-19 global pandemic.
The Texas Democratic Party had asked the court to vacate a stay by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which would have let stand a lower court ruling that essentially all Texans should be allowed to vote by mail.
The Supreme Court rejected that request, meaning that the state's usual limitations on mail voting will be in place for the July 14 primary runoffs. Early voting for those elections begins on Monday _ even as new COVID-19 cases across the state reach record highs and the state has begun to limit business operations to slow the spread.
Democrats urged the court to take up the case before the November presidential elections if it rejected its request to vacate the appeals court's order. The Supreme Court may still take up the case in its new term that begins in October and at least one justice said that the appeals court should consider the matter more carefully before the presidential elections.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a Barack Obama appointee, said the case raises "weighty but seemingly novel questions regarding the 26th Amendment," which prevents age discrimination in voting. The Democrats have argued that Texas' election law discriminates against those under 65 years old by not allowing them the right to vote by mail that those over that age are extended.
"I do not disagree with the decision to refrain from addressing them for the first time here, in the context of an emergency application to vacate a stay of an injunction," Sotomayor said. "But I hope that the Court of Appeals will consider the merits of the legal issues in this case well in advance of the November election."
Gilberto Hinojosa, chairman of the Texas Democratic Party, said in a statement he was disappointed the Supreme Court had not "provided needed relief and clarity for voters ahead of the primary runoff" and blamed Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton for only allowing some voters mail ballots.
"The case proceeds on in other filings before the U.S. Supreme Court and the 5th Circuit and therefore, hope remains that the federal courts will restore equal voting rights in time for the November elections," Hinojosa said. "We will not stop fighting for the rights of voters."
