Bizarre Distortion of Justice Thomas’s Election Dissent

On Monday, Justices Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch dissented from the Supreme Court’s decision to deny review of a Pennsylvania supreme court decision that extended by three days the legislatively enacted deadline for receiving mail-in ballots. The legal question raised by the state Republican party’s certiorari petition concerned whether and to what extent the Constitution’s conferral of authority on the “Legislature” of each state to determine the “Manner” of federal elections precludes nonlegislative officials from altering the rules set by the legislature. Justice Thomas and Justice Alito (joined by Justice Gorsuch) each wrote an opinion explaining why they dissented from the denial of review.