Rep. Darrell Issa’s effort to bar mail-in ballots from being counted after Election Day is officially on hold — pending a U.S. Supreme Court verdict in a similar case.
A San Diego federal judge on Wednesday posted an order staying Issa’s lawsuit against Secretary of State Shirley Weber and others.
Issa wants to halt the practice because, he said, it provides “an unfair electoral advantage for opponents of Republican congressional incumbents” like himself.
The League of Women Voters of California had balked at joining a motion to halt the case.
But in granting the stay motion, Judge Schopler said: “The Court has considered defendant League of Women Voters’ arguments, but still believes that the Supreme Court’s upcoming decision in Bost will likely control the standing question here.”
Bost is shorthand for Bost v. Illinois Board of Elections, which the high court on June 2 agreed to hear in the upcoming term.
Issa’s GOP colleague Rep. Mike Bost of southern Illinois filed suit in May 2022, and the case has already been heard by the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, based in Chicago.
A divided panel upheld the district court’s dismissal of the case for lack of standing — or eligibility to sue.
So the Supreme Court won’t decide whether the counting of mail ballots received after Election Day is constitutional. (Illinois mail ballots postmarked on or before Election Day are counted up to 14 days after Election Day. California counts ballots received within seven days of Election Day.)
Instead, the high court said: “The sole question presented here is whether Petitioners, as federal candidates, have pleaded sufficient factual allegations to show Article III standing to challenge state time, place and manner regulations concerning their federal elections.”
Curtis Morrison is a defendant in the Issa lawsuit — granted “intervenor status” along with others — and one of Issa’s opponents in the 2026 election.
Morrison told Times of San Diego: “Maybe this will free up some of Issa’s time so he can resume his passion for holding former presidents’ accountable for things that he thinks happened in the before times.”
Morrison, who has at least three other Democratic rivals for the 48th Congressional District seat of East County, noted that the United States filed an amicus brief Tuesday.
He said the Trump administration suggested that the Supreme Court find that “candidates have standing to seek prospective relief challenging a rule governing the validity of ballots so long as there is a risk that the ballots at issue could affect the outcome of their election.”
Morrison doesn’t consider that an unreasonable position.
“I’m more concerned that waiting on the resolution of Bost delays Issa’s challenge, making it more likely the matter will require rushed and emergency briefing and hearing in the run-up to the general election,” he said.
Times of San Diego has sought comment from Weber’s office, Issa and his attorneys, and others in the case — but has yet to hear back.
In his brief order, Biden-nominated Judge Schopler said all parties in the Issa case — after a Supreme Court verdict expected in 2026 — “must file a motion to lift the stay and provide a recommended case management schedule within seven days of the resolution of Bost.”
