Chiafalo v. Washington

E6561

United States Supreme Court case constitutional law case election law case legal case

Chiafalo v. Washington is a 2020 U.S. Supreme Court case that unanimously upheld states’ authority to penalize or replace “faithless electors” who do not vote in line with their state’s popular vote in presidential elections.

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All labels observed (2)

Label	Occurrences
Chiafalo v. Washington canonical	5
Peter B. Chiafalo, et al. v. State of Washington	1

Statements (49)

Predicate	Object
instanceOf	United States Supreme Court case ⓘ constitutional law case ⓘ election law case ⓘ legal case ⓘ
affirms	judgment of the Washington Supreme Court ⓘ
aroseFrom	Washington ⓘ surface form: State of Washington
concerns	enforcement of elector pledges ⓘ presidential elections in the United States ⓘ state authority over presidential electors ⓘ
hasAreaOfLaw	constitutional law ⓘ election law ⓘ public law ⓘ
hasChiefJusticeAtDecision	John G. Roberts Jr. ⓘ surface form: John G. Roberts, Jr.
hasCitation	591 U.S. ___ (2020) ⓘ
hasCountry	United States of America ⓘ surface form: United States
hasCourt	Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ
hasDecisionDate	2020-07-06 ⓘ
hasDecisionType	unanimous decision ⓘ
hasDocketNumber	No. 19-465 ⓘ
hasFullCaseName	Chiafalo v. Washington self-linksurface differs ⓘ surface form: Peter B. Chiafalo, et al. v. State of Washington
hasHolding	States may penalize or replace presidential electors who fail to vote in accordance with their state’s popular vote ⓘ The Constitution does not prohibit states from enforcing an elector’s pledge to support the state’s popular-vote winner ⓘ
hasImpact	clarified that states may enforce elector pledges in presidential elections ⓘ limited discretion of individual presidential electors to vote contrary to the state popular vote ⓘ
hasJurisdiction	federal question jurisdiction ⓘ
hasKeyPhrase	faithless electors ⓘ pledged electors ⓘ state authority to bind electors ⓘ
hasLegalIssue	Electoral College ⓘ constitutionality of penalties for faithless electors ⓘ faithless electors ⓘ state power to regulate presidential electors ⓘ
hasLowerCourt	Washington Supreme Court ⓘ
hasMajorityOpinionBy	Elena Kagan ⓘ
hasOutcome	Washington’s fines on faithless electors were upheld ⓘ
hasPetitioner	Peter B. Chiafalo ⓘ
hasRespondent	Washington ⓘ surface form: State of Washington
hasSubjectMatter	scope of state power under the Electors Clause ⓘ
hasTimePeriod	post-2016 U.S. presidential election era ⓘ
hasVote	9-0 ⓘ
hasYearOfDecision	2020 ⓘ
interprets	Article II of the United States Constitution ⓘ surface form: Article II of the U.S. Constitution Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution ⓘ surface form: Twelfth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution United States Constitution ⓘ surface form: U.S. Constitution
isRelatedCaseTo	Colorado Department of State v. Baca ⓘ
relatesTo	Electoral College system in the United States ⓘ democratic accountability of electors ⓘ state election laws ⓘ
wasArguedIn	2020 ⓘ

Referenced by (6)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Electoral College → notableSupremeCourtCase → Chiafalo v. Washington ⓘ

Chiafalo v. Washington → hasFullCaseName → Chiafalo v. Washington self-linksurface differs ⓘ

this entity surface form: Peter B. Chiafalo, et al. v. State of Washington

Colorado Department of State v. Baca → relatedCase → Chiafalo v. Washington ⓘ

Peter B. Chiafalo → legalCase → Chiafalo v. Washington ⓘ

Michael Baca → relatedCase → Chiafalo v. Washington ⓘ

Ray v. Blair → relatedCase → Chiafalo v. Washington ⓘ