People listen to speakers at a Stop the Steal rally in front of the Supreme Court on Tuesday, January 5, 2021 in Washington, DC.
Kent Nishimura | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images
The Supreme Court on Monday rejected President Donald Trump and his allies’ efforts to get the court to quickly consider challenges to President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the November election. The move effectively closed the door on the president’s last-minute legal strategy to nullify his defeat.
The court issued an order in the morning denying rapid consideration of lawsuits brought on by the Trump campaign that defied electoral procedures in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Likewise, he denied a request by conspiracy theorist L. Lin Wood to streamline his election challenge in Georgia, as well as other lawsuits filed by Trump’s allies.
The court’s action was widely expected and was not accompanied by any explanation or opinion, as is typical of such denials. There were no noted dissidents from any of the court’s nine judges.
Judges returned from their winter break to meet for a private conference on Friday. The list of requests released on Monday is the first since the DC riot last week when a crowd of Trump supporters tried to delay certification of Biden’s victory over Trump at the Electoral College.
The court made it clear that it would not process the cases on the schedule Trump asked for, even before issuing the order.
For example, in the Trump v. Boockvar, one of the cases that defies Pennsylvania electoral procedures, the president’s attorney, John Eastman, asked the court in a December document to take the case before January 6, when Congress met to certify the college record .
Eastman wrote that if the court did not act before January 20, when Biden will be inaugurated, “it will be impossible to repair the election results” that included ballots he claimed were made illegally based on rules approved by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
These are breaking news. Check back for updates.