The Supreme Court rejected a request by Pennsylvania Republicans to block the certification of the state’s election results in President-elect Joe Biden’s favor.
What We Know:
- The lawsuit was conducted by Republican Rep. Mike Kelly, who argued a 2019 state law authorizing universal mail-in voting is unconstitutional, and all ballots counted by mail in the general election in Pennsylvania should be thrown away.
- Along with several others, Kelly filed the lawsuit on Nov. 21 and asked Pennsylvania to refuse the more than 2.5 million ballots counted by mail or allow state lawmakers to select presidential electors. Republicans control Pennsylvania’s Legislature.
The Supreme Court has rejected a Pennsylvania Republican congressman’s request to prevent Pennsylvania from certifying its presidential election results in favor of Joe Biden.
This case is different from the lawsuit filed by the state of Texas this morning. https://t.co/ReS0eU0JsY pic.twitter.com/ybt6Dvlom4
— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) December 8, 2020
- “The application for injunctive relief presented to Justice [Samuel] Alito and by him referred to the Court is denied,” stated the court’s one-sentence order, which did not suggest any dissent among the nine justices.
JUST IN – #Pennsylvania has filed its brief (requested by Alito) to the Supreme Court. They basically urge the court not to open pandora’s box even if federal laws of the US constitution have been violated. pic.twitter.com/OId7w3GnNH
— Disclose.tv 🚨 (@disclosetv) December 8, 2020
- The state Supreme Court collectively rejected the lawsuit on Nov. 28, saying the GOP just waited for too long to question the law.
“Unsatisfied with the results of that wager, they would now flip over the table, scattering to the shadows the votes of millions of Pennsylvanians,” Justice David Wecht expressed. “It is not our role to lend legitimacy to such transparent and untimely efforts to subvert the will of Pennsylvania voters.”
- The justice who supervises emergency matters for the court coming from Pennsylvania, Samuel Alito had, beforehand, given election administrators a deadline of Wednesday to file their response to Kelly’s appeal.
- However, Alito moved up that deadline on Sunday, shifting it to Tuesday, the same day that marked the “safe harbor” deadline. This deadline assists as a cutoff date by which states must resolve any remaining election conflicts and certify their results.
- Kelly debated that Act 77, which permits voters to cast ballots by mail for any reason, is unconstitutional. Although lawyers representing Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration have stated, his claims are just simply with no base.
“After waiting over a year to challenge Act 77, and engaging in procedural gamesmanship along the way, they come to this Court with unclean hands and ask it to disenfranchise an entire state,” they noted. “They make such request without any acknowledgment of the staggering upheaval, turmoil, and acrimony it would unleash.”
- The Supreme Court’s unwillingness to overturn Pennsylvania’s election results is a setback to President Trump, who has refused to acknowledge the election results and has spoken openly about his request for the most powerful court in the land to step in and help his campaign.
Pennsylvania confirmed its election results on Nov. 24, with Biden predominating by more than 80,000 votes. Pennsylvania has 20 electoral votes.
