US supreme court hears arguments in lawsuit over Illinois mail-in ballots

Suit filed by Republican congressman challenges state law allowing late-arriving mail-in ballots to be counted

The US supreme court heard arguments Wednesday in a lawsuit challenging an Illinois law governing how the state counts mailed-in absentee ballots received after election day, meeting a sympathetic bench.

Arguments center on who has standing to challenge the law, not whether the practice itself is constitutionally valid. Justices asked questions about whether they should view a political candidate as an object" of the law - an entity for whom a regulation bears a direct consequence, and whether the odds of mail-in ballots tipping an election had bearing on whether a candidate had a right to challenge the law.