BREAKING: Louisiana AG Jeff Landry Says Supreme Court Should Take Up Election Cases

Lousiana Attorney General Jeff Landry issued a statement on Tuesday saying that the U.S. Supreme Court “needs to take up election cases.” The statement comes on the heels of a motion filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Tuesday morning.

In November, Landry led the Republican Attorneys General Association in calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a legal challenge of a Pennsylvania high court ruling allowing the counting of presidential mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day that did not arrive until Nov. 6. The Court announced today that it will not hear that challenge. In that case, as with Paxton’s filing this morning, Landry cited Article 1, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution, which states:

“The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations…”

Both Landry and Paxton claim that pandemic-era rule changes in regard to mail-in ballots and ballot dropboxes are unconstitutional.

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“In states like Pennsylvania, the judicial branch attempted to seize control of these duties and obligations and to set their own rules. These actions appear to be unconstitutional,” Landry stated. “If it is unconstitutional for Pennsylvania to take this action, it is similarly unconstitutional for other states to have done the same.”

Landry had previously fought against expanded early voting, mail ballots, and other coronavirus precautions in Louisiana, (in spite of those precautions being put in place for summer municipal elections), but the U.S. District Court ruled against him. Although the Louisiana Legislature had passed an emergency election plan that did not include some of those provisions – including expanded absentee ballots for people affected by COVID-19 – but Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards rejected the proposal. U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick ordered Louisiana’s Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin to implement the additional precautions for Election Day.