Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/20-542_2c83.pdf
Page Number: 15.0

4 

REPUBLICAN PARTY OF PENNSYLVANIA v.
DEGRAFFENREID 
ALITO, J., dissenting 

those last fall.  The primary election for Pennsylvania con-
gressional  candidates  is  scheduled  to  occur  in  15  months, 
and the rules for the conduct of elections should be estab-
lished well in advance  of the day  of an election.  We may 
hope that by next spring the pandemic will no longer affect 
daily  life,  but  that  is  uncertain.  In  addition,  the  state 
court’s decision was not based solely on the pandemic but
was  also  grounded  in  part  on  broader  concerns  about  the 
operation of the Postal Service, App. to Pet. for Cert. 34a–
35a, 47a, and concerns of this nature may persist or resur-
face.  As  voting by mail becomes more common and more 
popular, the volume of mailed ballots may continue to in-
crease and thus pose delivery problems similar to those an-
ticipated in 2020.

For these reasons, the cases now before us are not moot. 
There  is  a  “reasonable  expectation”  that  the  parties  will
face the same question in the future, see Wisconsin Right to 
Life, Inc., 551 U. S., at 463, and that the question will evade
future pre-election review, just as it did in these cases.

These cases call out for review, and I respectfully dissent

from the Court’s decision to deny certiorari.