Supreme Court Rejects GOP Appeal, Allows Democrats to Extend North Carolina Vote-by-Mail Deadline

The Supreme Court has voted 5-3 to deny a request by Republicans to overturn a decision by Democratic authorities in North Carolina to allow mail-in ballots to be counted nine days after Election Day and without a witness signature.

Justices Neil Gorsuch, Samuel Alito, and Clarence Thomas dissented, though only Gorsuch and Alito signed the dissent. Newly-sworn-in Justice Amy Coney Barrett did not participate in the decision.

As Breitbart News previously reported:

Democrats engineered the changes to mail-in voting through a “consent decree” between Democratic Party-aligned groups on the one hand, and state election authorities on the other. The state elections board is led by a Democrat appointed to the role.

Normally, mail-in ballots are counted in the state if they arrive up to three days after Election Day, and have a witness signature.

Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined the liberal justices, though for reasons that are unclear. One blog speculated that Kavanaugh wished to show deference to the North Carolina State Board of Elections because the state legislature had delegated rule-making power to it.

Gorsuch’s dissent argues that the state legislature had already passed new election laws, and that it had sole constitutional authority to set election rules. “The parties before us all acknowledge that, under the Federal Constitution, only the state “Legislature” and “Congress” may prescribe “[t]he Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections.” Art. I, §4, cl. 1,” he wrote.

Gorsuch, joined by Alito, said that the legislature had not given the board “a blank check … allowing it to rewrite the

election code in any and all consent decrees it may wish to enter.”

Republicans had lost in both the district court and at the Fourth Circuit.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/10/28/supreme-court-rejects-gop-appeal-allows-democrats-to-extend-north-carolina-vote-by-mail-deadline/

Three More Democrat Governors Join CA Newsom’s Promise Not to Trust Virus Vaccine Approved Under Trump

Just a couple weeks after Democrat California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced he would not automatically distribute a vaccine for the coronavirus if one is approved while President Donald Trump is in the White House, three more Democrat governors are putting politics ahead of public health in their states by also saying they don’t trust the Trump administration in the matter.

This despite the fact that all drugs available to U.S. consumers have to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) no matter who is president.

Breitbart News reported on Newsom’s decision to delay getting vaccines to California amid a global pandemic.

“A question I often get is: Are you going to take someone’s word for it as it relates to vaccines?” Newsom said at a press conference earlier this month. “Of course we don’t take anyone’s word for it.”

“We will do our own independently reviewed process with our world-class experts,” Newsom said.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported how the three more Democrat governors — Katie Brown in Oregon, Jay Inslee in Washington, and Steve Sisolak in Nevada — decided to get on board with Newsom’s approach to fighting the virus:

California formed an interstate pact with Washington, Oregon and Nevada in April to guide a common response to the coronavirus pandemic — a loose and largely symbolic political alliance to share strategies and push back on the Trump administration’s pressure to end shutdown measures quickly.

Newsom’s 11-member vaccine review committee is meant to instill public confidence in what has become a highly politicized vaccine development process by scrutinizing the safety and efficacy of any federally approved treatment and recommending whether to administer it to Californians. While a few vaccine candidates are close to approval, none is expected to be widely available until sometime in 2021.

And more Democrats are apparently putting together similar plans — Andrew Cuomo in New York and Gretchen Whitmer in Michigan. The Chronicle said Republican West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice also wants to vet any vaccine approved.

Newsom claimed this week that his plan would not cause delays and called the quick distribution of a vaccine a “political deadline,” the Chronicle reported.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/10/28/three-more-democrat-governors-join-ca-newsoms-promise-not-to-trust-virus-vaccine-approved-under-trump/

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