Washington [US], June 1: The U.S. Supreme Court this year already has given a boost to President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans in the nationwide battle over redrawing electoral maps. In the coming weeks, it could rule in favor of the Republicans in two more significant cases related to elections ahead of the November elections that will decide control of Congress.
In a case from Mississippi, Republican Party officials are seeking to strike down state laws that allow late-arriving mail ballots to be counted as long as they are postmarked by Election Day. Trump has sought to cast doubt on the security of mail-in ballots, though evidence of voter fraud is rare, and Democratic voters tend to use this mode of voting more than Republicans.
In a separate case involving Trump's Vice President JD Vance, Republicans are seeking to further chip away at legal limits on money in political campaigns - specifically involving spending coordinated between party organizations and candidates.
They argue such curbs violate the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment protections against government abridgment of freedom of speech. The court has proven receptive to such an argument, including in its landmark 2010 decision in the case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.
Rulings in both cases are expected by around the end of June.
Republicans are defending slim majorities in both the House of Representatives and Senate in the November 3 midterms. If Democrats win control of either chamber, they could impede Trump's legislative agenda and mount investigations of him and his administration.
The Supreme Court has a 6-3 conservative majority. In an April decision powered by the conservative justices in a case from Louisiana, it gutted a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, making it harder to challenge electoral maps as racially discriminatory under the landmark civil rights law.
That decision provided an immediate advantage to Trump's party ahead of the midterms, though legal experts said the impact of the two forthcoming rulings is harder to gauge.
The Voting Rights Act ruling opened the door for Republican state legislators to dismantle Democratic-held U.S. House districts with large Black or Latino populations across the South, potentially giving Republicans an electoral advantage for years to come. Black and Hispanic voters tend to vote for Democratic candidates.
That decision has been a "boon for Republicans," said Travis Crum, a Washington University in St. Louis School of Law professor.
Source: Fijian Broadcasting Cooperation
