Supreme Court Rejects Election Case

Attempt to overturn Pennsylvania election result rebuffed with single-sentence order
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 8, 2020 4:49 PM CST
Supreme Court Rejects Election Case
An American flag waves in front of the Supreme Court building on Capitol Hill in Washington.   (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

President Trump's allies have suffered yet another loss in their attempt to overturn election results. In a single-sentence order Tuesday, the Supreme Court rejected a request from Pennsylvania Republicans to overturn the state's results, the New York Times reports. "The application for injunctive relief presented to Justice Alito and by him referred to the Court is denied," the order said. Republican Rep. Mike Kelly had argued that almost all the state's mail-in ballots were unlawful, reports CNBC. Attorneys for Pennsylvania told the court that the request was one of the "most dramatic, disruptive invocations of judicial power" in US history. "No court has ever issued an order nullifying a governor’s certification of presidential election results," the state's attorneys said.

Kelly and other plaintiffs claimed that an expansion of mail-in voting approved by Pennsylvania's Republican-held legislature last year was unconstitutional, per the Hill. Unlike in other election cases related to Pennsylvania that the court has turned down this year, there were no dissenters to Tuesday's order, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. Pennsylvania's Supreme Court rejected the case last month. Tuesday's SCOTUS ruling came hours before the end of "safe harbor day," the deadline for states to certify their votes ahead of next week's Electoral College vote. Trump and his allies have made it clear that they plan to continue trying to overturn election results after the deadline passes. Texas filed a motion Monday to have the Supreme Court hear a lawsuit against Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin over alleged election irregularities. Legal experts say the unprecedented lawsuit has almost zero change of success. (More Election 2020 stories.)

Get breaking news in your inbox.
What you need to know, as soon as we know it.
Sign up
Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X