WASHINGTON —  The Supreme Court on Friday turned down an appeal from the Republican National Committee and refused to disqualify Pennsylvania voters who had sent in a mail ballot with an error on the envelope.

There were no dissents.

The decision is a victory for voting rights advocates who fought the issue in Pennsylvania courts.

They said voters should not lose their right to vote because they made a minor error on the mailing envelope.

The court did not issue an opinion explaining its decision. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., in a separate statement, said the Pennsylvania ruling was “controversial” and questionable, but there were procedural reasons for not ruling on the matter now.

Conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil M. Gorsuch said they agreed.

In response to the decision, Witold Walczak, legal director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania, said “a petty error that is irrelevant to a person’s eligibility to vote should never interfere with the counting of ballots, and provisional ballots are a decades-old fail-safe, a backup, for voters. We’re grateful that the RNC’s argument has failed and that voters can count on provisional ballots as a way to make sure that their vote counts.”

The Harris-Walz campaign also applauded the outcome. “Today’s decision confirms that, for every eligible voter, the right to vote means the right to have your vote counted,” a Harris statement read.

A decision in favor of the RNC could have affected several thousand voters across a state that is seen as pivotal in the presidential race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump.

Last week, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court gave legally registered voters a second chance to cast a ballot.

By a 4-3 vote, the state justices ruled that voters who sent in a defective mail ballot could go to their polling place on election day and file a provisional ballot that would be counted.

Trump and the Pennsylvania Republicans were highly skeptical of voting by mail four years ago, contending it could lead to fraud.
The Supreme Court conservatives have also been skeptical of judges making last-minute changes in voting rules.

On Monday, the RNC filed an emergency appeal in the Supreme Court and argued that the state court had “dramatically changed the rules on mail voting…in the midst of the ongoing general election.”

They said Pennsylvania law did not “create a cure process for mail ballot errors.”

Their appeal asked the justices to either throw out the state court ruling entirely or instead order the “segregation of affected provisional ballots” so they can be counted separately.

Election officials in Pennsylvania said the RNC claim is wrong. They told the court that many counties have offered provisional ballots to voters whose mail ballot was flawed. They said it would be dramatic change in the law to revoke that standard practice.

In its 4-3 decision, the state court said voters should not lose their right to vote because their mail ballot had an error on the envelope, such as a missing date or signature, or it was not mailed in a cover envelope.

The state judges agreed those defective ballots were “void” and could not be counted, but they said the voters should be permitted to cast a provisional vote in person.

“What honest voting principle is violated by recognizing the validity of one ballot cast by one voter,” said state Justice Christine Donohue for the majority.

The ACLU and other voting rights advocates defended that decision in response to the RNC’s appeal.

“The provisional voting process ensures that, for each voter, one ballot will be counted—not two ballots, and not zero ballots,” they argued.

Pro-Israel leaders and activists are expressing frustration and disappointment that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has yet to plan a vote on a bill aimed at tackling the rising tide of antisemitism on college campuses.

Many fear the delay could lead to the bill getting “watered down” – or potentially getting derailed altogether. 

“This is a very good bill. It’s a very important bill. It comes at a very, very urgent time in terms of the dynamics of our country, and it should be passed, and it should be passed and signed into law right away. I mean, the sooner the better,” said Elan Carr, CEO of the Israeli-American Council and former U.S. special envoy to combat antisemitism.

“There’s deep disappointment that this has been slow-rolled,” Rabbi Abrahm Cooper, former chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and director at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, added. “I think, in many ways, taking that tactic only highlights the fact that there are obviously elements of the Democratic Party that are anti-Israel.”

Carr echoed Cooper’s suggestion that the delay could likely be due to concerns that “this bill could reveal fissures that would be embarrassing for some.” 

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The bill in question is the Antisemitism Awareness Act, passed in bipartisan fashion on May 1. 

It seeks to mandate that the Department of Education adopt the same definition of “antisemitism” used by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), an intergovernmental organization aimed at uniting governments and experts to advance and promote Holocaust education. Under the bill, the IHRA definition would become standard for use in Title VI cases brought forward by the Department of Education.

Schumer has promised to put the Antisemitism Awareness Act up for a vote before the end of the year, according to Axios, which reported that he wants to attach the measure to the must-pass defense bill that will be voted on during Congress’ lame-duck session following the election. The move would pressure any potential dissenters to get on board with it.

According to Jewish Insider, Republican Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin have opposed the bill on grounds it limits free speech, while the New York Times reported Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah has also voiced his own objections.

The American Jewish Committee’s Director of Policy and Political Affairs, Julie Rayman, pointed to Schumer’s “earnest commitment to passing impactful legislation to counter antisemitism in the Senate.” 

But other proponents of getting the bill passed, such as Carr, expressed fear that Schumer’s decision to delay the vote until the lame-duck session – which starts after the November election – might jeopardize the bill’s prospects of being passed. 

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“One thing I don’t want to see happen is that this thing will be amended in ways that will make it actually more harmful than not doing anything at all,” Carr said. “My concern is it could get watered down, and the final product could do damage to the very causes that this bill is supposed to advance.” 

Carr pointed to a similar situation that happened in Indiana’s state legislature, where a bill that passed by both chambers was ultimately vetoed by the governor because it failed to incorporate the entire IHRA definition of antisemitism. 

“Senator Schumer’s choice to delay a vote on the Antisemitism Awareness Act by attaching it to unrelated legislation is disappointing, risking unnecessary setbacks,” said Florida GOP Rep. Carlos Giménez. Giménez voted in favor of the Antisemitism Awareness Act earlier this year and introduced different legislation targeting hatred towards the Jewish community. “I urge Senator Schumer to act now—protecting students from antisemitism must be a straightforward, bipartisan commitment that doesn’t get sidelined by political calculations.”

A sign taped to a tent inside the MIT encampment states that anti-Zionism does not equal antisemitism.  (Nikolas Lanum/Fox News Digital )

Meanwhile, a report released Thursday by Republicans on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, which followed a year-long probe into antisemitism on college campuses, has led at least one Jewish leader to become concerned about whether Schumer will ever put the Antisemitism Awareness Act up for a vote.

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The report alleged that Schumer dismissed the concerns of antisemitism on Columbia University’s campus, which saw months of anti-Israel protesting during the spring semester. According to published reports, Jewish students at Columbia faced such a significant rise in antisemitic behavior on campus that some filed a lawsuit against the university, while a task force created to address the issue found that the school failed to stop hate against Jewish students on campus amid the ongoing protests that followed Oct. 7.

Gerard Filitti is senior counsel with the Lawfare Project, a nonprofit which provides pro bono legal assistance to protect the civil rights of the Jewish community. He argued that in light of the Education and Workforce Committee’s report chronicling Schumer’s laissez-faire attitude towards campus antisemitism, there is “a very real concern” that Schumer might not ever bring the Antisemitism Awareness Act to the floor for a vote at all.

“Senator Schumer’s lack of leadership on one of the most pressing civil rights issues in our country is stunning,” argued Filitti. “Schumer has had six whole months to bring this bill up for a vote, and his failure to do so is not just puzzling but rather troubling; antisemitism is not, and should not be made, a partisan political issue. As with other forms of racism and bigotry, it takes bipartisanship to combat Jew-hatred, and in light of the ongoing crisis of antisemitism we see on college campuses, this bill should have passed the Senate months ago.” 

Fox News Digital reached out to Schumer’s office for comment but did not receive an on-the-record response by publication time.