Rep. Lloyd Smucker, other Republicans ask US Supreme Court to revive lawsuit against Joe Biden, Josh Shapiro election policies

• By Brett Sholtis/LNP | LancasterOnline

Congressman Lloyd Smucker of Lancaster is part of an effort to convince the U.S. Supreme Court to look at a lawsuit opposing get-out-the-vote efforts in Pennsylvania and beyond.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. Middle District Court of Pennsylvania by two dozen Republican state lawmakers in January, was dismissed in late March. The legislators appealed and also petitioned the Supreme Court. On May 28, Smucker and 10 other congressional Republicans filed a friend-of-the-court motion supporting the state lawmakers’ request.

Progressive legal groups say the rejected lawsuit relies on “independent state legislature theory,” which is the idea that only state lawmakers can set election policies.

“If adopted by the Supreme Court, the ISL theory could mean that only state legislatures can regulate federal elections,” wrote Madeleine Greenberg, a case coordinator at Democracy Docket, which tracks election-related lawsuits. Under that theory, governors, courts, voters and state constitutions “would not be able to set the rules governing elections, only state legislatures.”

In the lawsuit, state Republican lawmakers — including Dave Zimmerman and Tom Jones of Lancaster County — challenged three Biden administration policies, including a 2021 executive order that promotes “access to voting.” The suit claimed those efforts are unconstitutional.

The suit also challenged Pennsylvania’s automatic voter registration policy enacted by Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro in 2023, as well as a 2018 order barring counties from immediately rejecting a voter’s registration in cases where a voter’s ID card numbers don’t match those in a government database.

Smucker, who did not respond to requests for comment, joined Pennsylvania Congressmen Dan Meuser, Scott Perry, Guy Reschenthaler, Mike Kelly, Glenn Thompson and John Joyce in backing the lawsuit. Four members of Congress from New York, Tennessee, Georgia and Texas also were on the petition.

“The President has no authority to order all federal agencies to engage in voter registration, nor does he have authority to order any federal agency to engage in efforts to promote voter participation,” the Republicans state.

In their letter of support, they claim, without providing evidence, that mail voting is “the method of voting that is most susceptible to fraud.”

“The urgency of this matter is further fueled by the fact that we have an unprecedented number of illegal immigrants currently in the United States and by the fact that there has been a significant proliferation of mail-in voting permitted throughout the states,” they write.

‘Frivolous’ lawsuit

The Pennsylvania Department of State, which oversees elections, rejected the lawmakers’ claims.

“The Shapiro administration has been clear that this legal action is completely frivolous, and it was correctly and quickly dismissed in district court,” Department of State spokesman Matt Heckel said.

Mail voting “is safe, secure, and efficient — and no-excuse mail-in voting was passed with bipartisan support in the General Assembly in 2019,” Heckel said.

There has been zero evidence of widespread fraud, he said, noting mail voter IDs must be verified by the county board of elections during each election. Additionally, a barcode on each mail ballot envelope keeps people from being able to vote more than once.