Two of the most accomplished attorneys in the United States came together at The Heritage Foundation last month to discuss the 2023-2024 Supreme Court term which kicks off this week. The first speaker, Paul Clement, is a Partner at Clement and Murphy, PLLC, and was the 43rd Solicitor General of the United States. The second speaker, Lisa Blatt, is a Partner and Chair of the Supreme Court and Appellate Practice at Williams and Connolly LLP.

On Tuesday, The Heritage Foundation launched its Election Integrity Scorecard, "an interactive tool that allows users to quickly and easily assess the status of state election fairness and security."

NEW TOOL ALERT

The Election Integrity Scorecard is an interactive tool that allows users to quickly and easily assess the status of state election fairness and security—and even compare states by their the rankingshttps://t.co/txSGPRIZvs pic.twitter.com/Hf72Em7Q1V

— Heritage Foundation (@Heritage) December 14, 2021

Last month, the U.S. House passed the so-called "Equality Act", which has been presented as a bill that broadens protections against discrimination. However, the bill does the exact opposite by "forcing Americans to conform to government-mandated beliefs under the threat of life-ruining financial and criminal penalties." Especially during Women's History Month, the bill's provisions concerning the rights of women should be exposed for what they actually are.

If there is one thing that unites those concerned with free speech; open fair and honest elections; libertarians and conservatives; and the GOP and ACLU; it is opposition to HR1.  Today we’ll highlight three groups opposition. 

First, we want to highlight the opinions of those who know elections best, the Secretaries of State who wrote a letter opposing HR 1:

We are writing you today to urge you to reject the “For the People Act” otherwise known as H.R. 1 or S. 1, which is a dangerous overreach by the federal government into the administration of elections.

Each state legislature should have the freedom and flexibility to determine practices that best meet the needs of their respective states. A one-size-fits-all approach mandated by Congress is not the solution to any of our problems.

These bills intrude upon our constitutional rights, and further sacrifice the security and integrity of the elections process. We firmly believe the authority to legislate and regulate these changes should be left with the states.

As we celebrate Constitution Day today, it is worth remembering that the Founders carefully wrote the Constitution to ensure that our third branch of government was independent through mechanisms such as life tenure, the prohibition against diminution of salary, and the nomination and confirmation mechanism itself, and that judicial independence is what preserves the Constitution and our system of government.  

Yet many liberals now want to undermine the independence of the judiciary because judges do not always reach the outcomes they desire to advance their progressive policy goals.  

Or perhaps more accurately, they are attempting to redefine judicial independence to mean a judiciary that advances progressive policy goals and interests.  

As we wrote last week, Lawyers Democracy Fund (LDF) has a full analysis of the election administration portions of HR 1 and how they would centralize control of elections and harm election integrity.  LDF has also released a shorter document highlighting the top ten problems with HR 1: