Judicial
Watch Files Supreme Court Brief in Historic Election Integrity
Case

Judicial Watch is in the midst
of a massive Supreme Court battle that goes to the heart of protecting the
rule of law in elections.
In our latest effort, we filed our opening
brief
to the Supreme Court in a case filed on behalf of Congressman Mike Bost and
two presidential electors, who are before the court to vindicate their
standing to challenge an Illinois law extending Election Day for 14 days
beyond the date established by federal
law (Rep.
Michael J. Bost, Laura Pollastrini, and Susan Sweeney v. The Illinois State
Board of Elections and Bernadette Matthews (No.
1:22-cv-02754, 23-2644, 24-568)).
In June, the Supreme Court agreed
to hear our appeal of the
decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in this
case. The lower courts had denied that Bost and the electors had standing
to challenge Illinois’ practice of counting ballots received up to 14
days after Election Day. (The Election Day lawsuit was initially filed
on May 25, 2022.)
Our Supreme Court brief
states:
Federal law sets the first Tuesday after the
first Monday in November as the federal Election Day.
***
Candidates have
an obvious interest in the lawfulness and fairness of the rules that govern
the elections into which they pour their time and resources. They also have
an obvious interest “in ensuring that the final vote tally accurately
reflects the legally valid votes cast.”
***
Candidates pour enormous resources into running
for election and have an obvious interest in the rules that dictate how
long their races will last and how the ballots will be counted. They also
have a distinct interest “in ensuring that the final vote tally
accurately reflects the legally valid votes cast.”
Our
legal team makes a simple and powerful argument to the Supreme Court: It is
obvious that candidates have standing to challenge unlawful rules governing
the elections into which they are pouring untold resources.
In March
2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit declined
to rehear its previous ruling in which it agreed with us that it was
unlawful for Mississippi to count ballots that arrived after Election Day
(Libertarian
Party of Mississippi v Wetzel et al.
(No. 1:24-cv-00037)).
In March 2025 we filed a federal lawsuit
against California on behalf of U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa to prevent state
election officials from extending Election Day for seven days beyond the
date established by federal law.
California counts ballots received up to seven days after Election Day (Darrell
Issa v. Shirley N. Weber, in her official capacity (No.
3:25-cv-00598)).
Paul Clement, who has argued more than 100 cases
before the Supreme Court, is representing Congressman Bost and the electors
with Judicial Watch before the Supreme Court. Clement is former solicitor
general under President George W. Bush from 2005-2008 and is widely
regarded as among the top Supreme Court litigators in the
country.
Robert Popper, a Judicial Watch senior attorney, leads our
election law program. Popper was previously in the
Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department,
where he managed voting rights investigations, litigations, consent
decrees, and settlements in dozens of states.
T. Russell Nobile, a
Judicial Watch senior attorney, is part of our voting integrity efforts and
focuses on campaign and voting issues, civil rights issues, constitutional
law, official misconduct by public institutions and officials, and other
issues.
Other examples of our election law work
include:
- In April 2025, we announced
that our analysis of voter registration lists has led to lawsuits and legal
actions under the
National
Voter Registration Act (NVRA) that have resulted in the removal of five
million names from voter rolls in nearly a dozen states and localities
over the last several years.
- In October 2024, we filed a
lawsuit on behalf of itself, the Constitution Party of Oregon, and two
lawfully registered voters of Umatilla County and Marion County, Oregon,
against Lavonne Griffin-Valade in her official capacity as Oregon Secretary
of State and the State of Oregon, to make “a reasonable effort to remove
the names of ineligible voters” from the voter rolls as required by the
NVRA (Judicial
Watch, et al. v. The State of Oregon et al. (No.
6:24-cv-01783)).
- In May 2024, we sued
California to clean up its voter rolls. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of
Judicial Watch and the Libertarian Party of California, similarly asks the
court to compel California to make “a reasonable effort” to
remove ineligible registrants from the rolls as required by federal law (Judicial
Watch Inc. and the Libertarian Party of CA v. Shirley Weber et al.
(No. 2:24-cv-03750)).
Justice Department
Supports Judicial Watch in Illinois Voter Roll Clean
Up
Judicial Watch continues to take the lead in
cleaning up voter rolls around the country, and now we have some help from
the feds.
The U.S. Department of Justice filed a statement
of interest in our lawsuit
that seeks to force the clean-up of Illinois’ election rolls as federal
law requires (Judicial
Watch, Inc., et al. v. Illinois State Board of Elections, et
al. (No.
1:24-cv-01867)). U.S. District Court Judge Sara L. Ellis set a hearing
in the case for next week.
The Justice Department filing notes:
“This case presents
important questions regarding enforcement of the National Voter
Registration Act.” In a press
release announcing the Statement of Interest, Assistant Attorney
General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights
Division said:
It is critical to remove ineligible voters
from the registration rolls so that elections are conducted fairly,
accurately, and without fraud. Under the NVRA [National Voter Registration
Act], states have the responsibility to conduct a robust program of list
maintenance. The Department of Justice will
vigorously enforce those requirements to ensure
compliance.
The National
Voter Registration Act (NVRA) requires states to “conduct a general
program that makes a reasonable effort to remove” from the official voter
rolls “the names of ineligible voters” who have died or changed
residence. The law requires registrations to be cancelled when voters fail
to respond to address confirmation notices and then fail to vote in the
next two general federal elections. In 2018, the Supreme Court confirmed
that such removals are mandatory.
Our lawsuit details that 23
Illinois counties, with a combined registration list of 980,089 voters,
reported removing a combined total of only 100 registrations in the last
two-year reporting period under a crucial provision of the NVRA. This is an
“absurdly small” number, and there “is no possible way these counties
can be conducting a general program that makes reasonable effort to cancel
registrations of voters who have become ineligible because of a change of
residence while removing so few registrations.”
Our lawsuit
demonstrates Illinois voter rolls are a mess and the Justice
Department is right to be concerned about the state’s failures to keep
them clean.
In June 2025, the Justice Department filed a statement
of interest in Judicial Watch’s lawsuit to compel Oregon to clean its
voter rolls.
Judicial Watch is a national leader in voting
integrity and voting rights.
In July 2024, we asked
a federal court to reject the State of Illinois’ motion to dismiss our
lawsuit to compel the state to clean up its voter rolls. The lawsuit was
filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of
Illinois, on behalf of the nonprofit organizations Illinois
Family Action and Breakthrough
Ideas, and Carol J. Davis, a lawfully registered Illinois voter (Judicial
Watch, Inc. et al v. The Illinois State Board of Elections et al.
(No. 1:24-cv-01867)).
In May 2024, we sued
California to clean up its voter rolls. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the
Libertarian Party of California, similarly asks the court to compel
California to make “a reasonable effort” to remove ineligible
registrants from the rolls as required by federal law (Judicial
Watch Inc. and the Libertarian
Party of CA v. Shirley Weber et al. (No.
2:24-cv-03750)).
Judicial Watch Sues Over Removal
of West Point Crest from Bibles in Chapel
Judicial Watch is
keeping a close eye on our military academies, which came under leftist
pressure to retreat from traditional values during the Biden
administration.
Judicial Watch filed a FOIA lawsuit
against the U.S. Department of Defense for records about the removal of the
West Point crest from Bibles in the Cadet Chapel at the United States
Military Academy (Judicial
Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Department of Defense (No.
1:25-cv-01855)).
The lawsuit was filed after the U.S. Military
Academy at West Point, a component of the Defense Department, failed to
respond to a December 13, 2024, FOIA request for:
- All documents that form the basis upon which the decision was
made to remove the West Point Crest from the cover of the Bibles in the
West Point Chapel. Upon information and belief, the West Point Crest has
appeared on the cover of the Bibles in the West Point Chapel since 1984,
but circa December 2024, the Crest has been
removed from the Bibles.
- All emails
sent to and from Col. Matthew Pawlikowski [former
U.S. Military Academy chaplain] regarding the crest’s appearance on
the cover of the Bibles used in the West Point Chapel.
We filed
the FOIA request after receiving information from a reliable source – the
MacArthur
Society, an association of West Point graduates – that the West Point
crest had been on the Bibles since 1984 and was removed sometime in
December 2024.
In a related incident, in a March 12, 2024, “Message
from the 61st Superintendent,” Superintendent LTG Steven Gilland
announced a change to the Army’s mission statement, referencing the
Army’s continued commitment to “Duty, Honor and Country” without
explaining why the words themselves were deleted.
It appears the
Biden administration and its leftist accomplices were determined to sever
all connections between West Point and traditional values.
They added divisive DEI programs to the curriculum and removed ‘Duty,
Honor, Country’ from the Military Academy’s mission statement. Now, we
learn they removed the West Point crest from Bibles in the West Point
Chapel. It’s a wonder they didn’t remove the Bibles.
In May 2025,
we uncovered records
from West Point revealing that speakers at the March 2024 “Founders
Day” event were instructed to “AVOID saying
‘removed,’ ‘replaced,’ ‘deleted’ [when referring to the new
mission statement] – just refer to the ‘updated mission statement and
reinforce that the motto remains unchanged.” [Emphasis in original] The
records also tied DEI efforts to the mission statement
controversy.
In November 2024, we filed a FOIA lawsuit
against the Defense Department for information regarding the rebranding of
West Point’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) office to “Office of
Engagement and Retention.”
In March 2023, records
from the Defense Department showed the U.S. Air Force Academy had made race
and gender instruction a top priority in the
training of cadets.
In July 2023, we exposed
records from the U.S. Air Force Academy, a component of the Defense
Department, which included instructional materials and emails that
addressed topics such as Critical Race Theory, “white privilege,” and
Black Lives Matter.
In June 2022, we uncovered
Critical Race Theory (CRT) instruction at the U.S. Military Academy. One
training slide contained a graphic titled “MODERN-DAY SLAVERY IN THE
USA.” [Emphasis in original]
Court Stands with
Parent Against Bucks County Withholding Covid
Records
Here’s a victory for the little guy.
The
Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court ruled
that Bucks County, Pennsylvania, acted in bad faith in unlawfully
suppressing public records concerning the county health department’s
Covid-19 school guidance. The Commonwealth Court affirmed the trial
court’s May 2023 award of sanctions against Bucks County in the
amount of $3,000 to Judicial
Watch client, Megan Brock.
Brock is a parent who was sued by Bucks
County after the trial court’s ruling in her favor in an effort to
prevent the release of documents related to Covid restrictions and the
re-opening of the county’s schools that she requested under the
Commonwealth’s Right-to-Know Law (County
of Bucks v. Megan Brock (Nos. 2022-03083 and
2022-02979)).
In February and March 2022, Brock sent a public records
request asking for all electronic correspondence between Bucks Co.
executives and the Health Department regarding public school Covid-19 guidance,
which was issued in August 2021. Brock was trying to determine who
authorized the reopening guidance that was changed to include more
restrictive rules about masks, quarantining, and testing.
“This
ruling confirms that Bucks County egregiously targeted my civil rights by
wrongfully withholding public records,” said Brock. “It's frightening
as an everyday American to be bullied and attacked by your own government.
I’m extremely thankful to Judicial Watch for their hard work in
protecting my rights and the rights of all Americans. When Bucks County
filed multiple lawsuits against me for
exercising my constitutional rights, Judicial Watch was there when no one
else had my back. I’m grateful for this legal victory and the precedent
it sets for all Pennsylvanians, who have the right to government
transparency. This was not a fair fight, and I could not have fought this
battle alone. Judicial Watch has again ensured that no one is above the
law, not even radical, local politicians!”
This a nice victory for
transparency and accountability over arrogant local officials who abused
citizens and schoolchildren over Covid. The court’s imposing the maximum
bad-faith penalties on Bucks County sends a warning to every bureaucrat and
elected official in Pennsylvania that no one is above the
law.
Pakistani Trafficker in Brazil Helped Bring
Middle Easterners into U.S.
The common image of hard-working
Mexican families working our fields hides an insidious underbelly of
illegal people
smuggling, as our Corruption Chronicles blog reports.
In
a significant case ignored by the establishment media, an illegal immigrant
from Honduras has been sentenced to a decade in prison for running a
massive years-long alien smuggling operation that “facilitated
the illegal movement of Middle Easterners into the United States,”
according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). The defendant’s “actions
put our national security at risk,” the top federal prosecutor overseeing
the case in the western district of Texas confirms. While mainstream media
coverage focuses exclusively on hard working migrants cruelly deported in
nationwide Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids, the agency is
taking serious criminals off the streets. That part, however, is not
receiving any coverage even though the Trump administration is
making the information readily available on various Department of Homeland
Security (DHS) websites.
In this important case, Enil Edil
Mejia-Zuniga, a 34-year-old illegal immigrant from Honduras, was the leader
of what federal authorities call “a massive alien smuggling conspiracy
that spanned three years and involved thousands of aliens from over 11
different countries.” A 33-year-old Mexican illegal immigrant and two
other Honduran migrants, ages 26 and 32, worked for Mejia-Zuniga and have
also been criminally charged. A final defendant is in custody in Mexico
pending an extradition request from the United States. The group made
millions of dollars off the migrants they helped smuggle into the U.S.,
authorities confirm, adding that the case represents the epitome of the
ruthless and sophisticated criminal organizations that exploit our borders
for personal financial gain. “For more than three years, these
individuals operated a
transnational smuggling ring driven by greed, moving illegal aliens from 11
countries in blatant disregard of the law,” said Special Agent in Charge
Craig Larrabee of ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in San
Antonio, Texas. “Human smuggling undermines the security of our borders
and disrupts lawful immigration processes.”
The DOJ’s
announcement includes several pictures of Mejia-Zuniga posing with rifles
and cash. Court documents reveal that from November 2020 through March
2023, the Mejia-Zuniga alien smuggling organization (ASO) brought in
migrants from Afghanistan, Yemen, Egypt, India, Pakistan, and Colombia,
through Eagle Pass, Texas. Aliens primarily contracted with a Pakistani
smuggler based in Brazil to be transported to the United States. The
Brazilian-based associate worked with the San Antonio-based Mejia-Zuniga to
facilitate travel of the illegal immigrants from South America to the
United States. Mejia-Zuniga
directed operations of the ASO and paid drivers, armed “coyotes,” and
stash house operators. The Honduran man admitted to smuggling between 2,500
to 3,000 aliens into the United States in just two years. His business
charged between $6,500 to $12,000 per alien. Mejia-Zuniga said he made
$30,000 for every ten illegal aliens who made it to the Rio Grande River
and another $30,000 if those ten illegal aliens made it to San Antonio.
Evidence gathered by the feds during their investigation includes wire
transfers, customer ledgers, foreign identification documents and photos of
the entire Mejia-Zuniga clan with firearms.
This important yet
unreported case was cracked under Operation
Take Back America, a national plan launched in March to repel the
damages of the Biden administration’s disastrous open border policies by
controlling illegal immigration, eliminating drug cartels such as Jalisco
New Generation, Sinaloa, Michoacan and Los Zetas as well as other
transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) like Tren de Aragua and the
famously violent Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13). Thousands of illegal immigrants
throughout the country have been charged with serious crimes under
Operation Take Back America and the initiative has led to the apprehension
of countless others arrested for illegally reentering the U.S. who already
had felony convictions involving narcotics, firearms, and sexual offenses.
Additionally, federal authorities have seized enormous amounts of illicit
drugs, including more than 44 million fentanyl pills and nearly 70,000
pounds of methamphetamine.
Until next week,
