Friday, April 11

North Carolina Supreme Court rules to count some ballots, reject others

• North Carolina’s highest court issued a mixed ruling Friday in the ongoing legal saga over the 2024 election between state Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs (D) and her Republican challenger, appeals court judge Jefferson Griffin.
  
  
• Per today’s ruling, around 60,000 ballots with incomplete registrations cast in the 2024 state Supreme Court election will be counted. The Court also issued a 30-day cure period for the roughly 5,000 overseas military voters who did not provide proper photo ID when they registered to vote. But the Court greenlit the decision of a lower court to reject around 200 ballots cast by overseas voters who are registered to vote in North Carolina but never resided in the state. Those ballots will not be counted.
  
  
• Because the race is so close — Riggs was declared the winner by 734 votes — the ballots that have been rejected or thrown into doubt by the court’s ruling could be more than enough to sway the result.

The Democratic justice who paved the way for Jefferson Griffin in North Carolina

• In 1994, Chief Justice Ernest Hornsby lost his seat on the Alabama Supreme Court by 262 votes. Hornsby asked state courts to retroactively change election rules to count 2,000 additional ballots — and his colleagues on the high court agreed. But Hornsby’s attempt to overturn an election ultimately failed when the federal courts stepped in to order Alabama to count ballots under the rules that existed on Election Day.
  
  
• That episode offers a case study for why the federal courts must again intervene to protect fair elections and stop politically motivated efforts to change the rules after the fact — this time in North Carolina, Billy Corriher writes in a new piece for Democracy Docket. 

SCOTUS orders Trump admin to “facilitate” return of wrongly deported man

• The Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” the return of a wrongfully deported Maryland father. Following SCOTUS’ ruling, a lower court directed the administration to outline specific steps for his return.
  
  
• Hours later, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said it can’t comply with the order because the deadline set is "impractical."

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse: Don’t believe that Trump will follow court orders

• Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) joined Marc to discuss the ongoing influence of dark money in the courts, how the Trump administration is tearing apart the DOJ and Elon Musk-led threats against judges.

Hearing on voting machine ban coming up Monday

• The 7th Circuit will hear oral argument in the DOJ's lawsuit against Thornapple, Wisconsin. The DOJ said Thornapple banned voting machines in violation of federal voting rights and accessibility law. A lower court agreed, but the town appealed.
  
  
• This lawsuit was filed under the Biden administration. The Trump DOJ has moved to withdraw or drop involvement in voting rights lawsuits filed under the Biden administration in states like Georgia, Texas and Alabama. But this Wisconsin case remains active, for now.