Ginsburg Rips Conservative Justices Who Blocked Wisconsin’s Absentee Voting Extension

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg excoriated her conservative colleagues over their decision to deny Wisconsin Democrats’ request to extend the deadline for absentee voting in the state’s election on Tuesday, despite concerns over the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

In a 5-4 vote on Monday, the Supreme Court’s conservative bloc refused to extend the absentee voting deadline by six days, saying instead all mail-in ballots must be postmarked by Tuesday and received by April 13. Democrats had pleaded with the courts to give more leeway to voters as COVID-19 wreaks havoc around the nation, infecting more than 366,000 people and killing more than 10,000. The nation’s top public health officials have urged Americans to practice social distancing and to remain at home as much as possible, directives that run counter to entering a crowded polling place.

Ginsburg, who was joined in her dissent by the three other liberal Justices, said her conservative colleagues’ decision to see the election proceed as planned would effectively strip many Wisconsinites of their right to vote “through no fault of their own.”

“The question here is whether tens of thousands of Wisconsin citizens can vote safely in the midst of a pandemic,” Ginsburg wrote on Monday. “With the majority’s stay in place, that will not be possible. Either they will have to brave the polls, endangering their own and others’ safety. Or they will lose their right to vote, through no fault of their own.”

She continued: “That is a matter of utmost importance — to the constitutional rights of Wisconsin’s citizens, the integrity of the State’s election process, and in this most extraordinary time, the health of the Nation.”

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