The Trump campaign’s last appeal to the Supreme Court will see no action by the judges until after the inauguration.
Judges this week set a deadline for response to Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar and the other defendants named in the January 22 case. and receive Trump campaign response summaries sent by Thursday. He also asked the court to rule by January 6. But the court did not.
This means that by the time Boockvar and the others that the Trump campaign is trying to get to the Supreme Court to even respond to the petition, President-elect Joe Biden will have already been sworn in.
In this November 4, 2020 photo, the Washington Supreme Court. Supreme Court justices set a January 22 deadline for Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar to respond to a Trump campaign petition. (AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite)
At that point, the court could simply refuse to hear the case, saying that it is debatable or impossible for them to resolve at that point. Congress will have already counted the electoral votes and certified the next president – this meeting will take place on January 6. The Trump campaign, however, argued in its writing that even Inauguration Day would not make the court “debatable” because such issues could happen in the future and therefore the court must resolve them in advance.
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The Trump campaign, in a statement at the weekend when it announced the petition, cited a statement by Judge Samuel Alito in which he doubted whether it was constitutional for Pennsylvania to have its judiciary make changes to the laws governing the presidential election.
“This petition follows a related case from Pennsylvania, where Judge Alito and two other judges observed ‘the constitutionality of the [Pennsylvania] Supreme Court Decision [extending the statutory deadline for receipt of mail ballots from 8 pm on election day to 5 pm three days later] … It is of national importance and there is a high probability that the decision of the State Supreme Court will violate the Federal Constitution, ”said Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
Trump’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday.
The Trump campaign is trying to get judges to overturn three Pennsylvania Supreme Court decisions on signature verification, prospecting observation and specific requirements on how voters must fill out ballots.
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“As described above, non-legislative officials, often at the instigation of partisan third parties, ignored or significantly altered and therefore violated state electoral law, including, most worryingly, laws enacted to minimize the risk of fraud in postal voting. and thus protect the integrity of the electoral process, “says the Trump campaign process.
Rudy Giuliani, President Trump’s personal lawyer, scans the room during a Michigan House Supervisory Committee hearing for suspected statewide electoral fraud at the House Office Building in Lansing, Michigan, December 2, 2020. (Mike Mulholland / The Grand Rapids Press via AP)
He continued: “The decisions of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, an elected body, also raised serious concerns whether these were partisan attempts to help the Democratic candidate whose campaign strategy of using ballots by mail was well publicized, compared to the well-known strategy of President Trump to encourage personal vote “.
If the court decided in favor of the Trump campaign, the petition specifically raised the possibility that Pennsylvania could recertify its current results “if, and only if, they could establish the validity of a sufficient number of postal ballots to support certification. existing. “
If that is not possible, the campaign said, the state legislature could intervene.
Judges recently dismissed a Texas case asking the court to essentially overturn the results of the presidential elections in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia and Wisconsin. Judges took a few hours after Texas filed its brief final refusal to hear the case for lack of legitimacy.
Many other challenges from the Trump and his allies campaign, alleging widespread electoral fraud, have failed uniformly in several state and federal courts. The pre-election challenge to the length of the Pennsylvania postal vote – which sparked Alito’s statement, which was also signed by Judges Gorsuch and Thomas – was the case that seemed to gain the most strength in his argument.
But Biden beat Trump by more than 80,000 votes in Pennsylvania and tens of thousands in other major states that put the president-elect at the top of the polling station. There was no evidence of fraud or widely publicized invalid votes to close the margins that Biden won.
President Trump waves while boarding Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, December 23, 2020. Trump is traveling to his resort in Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida. Trump earlier this week stated baselessly that he won the presidential election for a “magnificent landslide.” (AP Photo / Patrick Semansky)
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However, the Trump campaign continues its litigation and Trump himself this week has continued to claim without foundation that he won the election for a “magnificent landslide”.
Trump also supported an effort by some members of the Republican Party House, left by Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., To object to the Electoral College plates of some states that Biden won, in a final effort to overturn the election results. . But it is highly unlikely that this effort will succeed.
Chamber members would need a senator to participate in their request to force each chamber to vote on the rejection of any individual state’s electoral votes. If that happens, it is almost certain that neither the House nor the Senate would vote to reject the votes – and both would need to do so for a challenge to be successful. Even in the Republican-controlled Senate, many Republicans have already congratulated Biden on his victory, including Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
When asked about his thoughts on a potential challenge from the Electoral College during the joint Jan. 6 session, Senate minority leader John Thune, RS.D. said such an effort would be “sinking like a doggun shot”.
Jason Donner of Fox News contributed to this report.