The lawsuit is the latest Republican challenge to amend the election results that has not yet been successful.
After another rejection by the Pennsylvania courts, Republicans on Thursday again asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the embattled state, while state lawyers say fatal flaws spell in the original case that the judges will most likely disagree with him.
Republican US Representative Mike Kelly from northwestern Pennsylvania and the other plaintiffs are calling on the Supreme Court to prevent the state from confirming the November 3 nominations and reversing confirmations that have already been made, such as Biden’s victory to do while the lawsuit is under consideration.
They believe Pennsylvania’s expansive postal voting law is unconstitutional because it required a constitutional amendment to approve its provisions.
However, as a sign that the case is likely to be late to sway the election, Judge Samuel Alito ordered the state’s attorneys to attend by December 9th, one day after the so-called “safe harbor deadline.” should answer.
Rick Hasen, law professor at the University of California, Irvine, argues, “Timing is crucial here.”
“Any final electoral roll-out made in a state by what is known as the” safe harbor period “under the federal electoral counting act has the right to be definitively recognized by Congress,” Hasen writes on his blog about the electoral law. “This year that deadline is the [8. Dezember]. The voters themselves will vote on December 14th. By setting the deadline for a response to December 9th, it means the Supreme Court won’t act long after the Safe Harbor deadline, which further increases the likelihood that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court will overturn the findings decreased.
Biden beat President Donald Trump by more than 80,000 votes in Pennsylvania, a state that Trump won in 2016. Most of the postal ballots were submitted by Democrats.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court dropped the case on Saturday. Kelly’s lawyers filed for an injunction in the US Supreme Court on Tuesday and then withdrew it while asking the state Supreme Court to stop all certifications pending action by the US Supreme Court. State judges denied it on Thursday, and Kelly’s attorneys promptly retried the case to the US Supreme Court.
In state courts, judges relied on the 180-day deadline within which the law can appeal its provisions, as well as the staggering demand to overturn an entire election retrospectively.
In addition to challenging the state electoral law, Kelly’s attorneys are questioning whether state judges violated the constitutional rights of their clients by dismissing the case on deadlines and banning them from retrial for the same reasons.
Repeated road blockades
Trump’s desperate efforts in court to de-legitimize an election he lost have come no closer in a month to undoing any results.
Trump’s lawyers and his allies have urged judges in several states to take the drastic and unprecedented move and undo Biden’s victories.
Yet the sheer volume of affidavits, lawsuits and claims made by Trump belies the fact that they are false or often repeat arguments that have already been rejected by judges and election officials, some of whom are Republicans.
Here is a look at the state of play in other key states:
Arizona
A judge held a hearing starting Thursday brought up by Republican Party leader Kelli Ward, who alleged irregularities in the verification of signatures on postal ballot papers. The judge had Ward’s lawyers and experts compare the signatures on 100 envelopes with the signatures on the files to see if there were any irregularities. Ward’s attorneys identified two problems: one person’s vote for Trump was eventually registered as a vote for Biden, and another person’s vote was canceled because the ballot paper had both Trump and a written candidate voting.
The courts there have already dismissed four other cases. Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, a Republican, confirmed the Arizona results on Monday. In a touch of symbolism, he declined a phone call from Trump while he was signing the credentials. Attorney Sidney Powell, recently fired from Trump’s legal team and advocating wild conspiracy theories about the election, has also filed a lawsuit there.
President Donald Trump supporters protested in Phoenix, Arizona last week [Ross D. Franklin/AP Photo].
Michigan
Six cases brought by Trump and Republican allies in Michigan have either been rejected or dropped. On Wednesday, Giuliani appeared at a public meeting with lawmakers and urged activists to pressure, and even threaten, the GOP-controlled legislature to “step up” and win the state’s 16 votes despite the 154,000-vote victory Biden awards to Trump.
Wisconsin
The state’s Supreme Court on Thursday declined to hear Trump’s lawsuit aimed at undoing his defeat on the battlefield state. In a split decision, the court did not rule on the merits of the claims, but said the Ca
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