U.S. President Donald Trump plays at the Trump National Golf Club on December 13, 2020 in Sterling, Virginia.
Al Drago | Getty Images
President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign on Sunday made a lengthy test in the Supreme Court to challenge President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in Pennsylvania in a petition calling on magistrates to effectively reverse the outcome of the race.
The case, filed nearly seven weeks after election day and just a month before Biden’s inauguration, will almost certainly be dismissed by magistrates. It occurs when Trump continues to deny his loss, even when judges across the country have flatly dismissed allegations of fraud by his allies and allies.
The challenge follows a similar lawsuit filed by Texas that judges refused to hear earlier this month. The court rejected Trump’s state-backed arguments challenging the election in Pennsylvania and other tipping states. The nine judges noted at the time that they disagreed with Texas’ central arguments.
Judges have not taken any action in a separate Supreme Court challenge filed by the Pennsylvania Republican Party, which challenges the extended term of the vote in the absence of the state. This case was originally presented before election day.
The Trump campaign announced its latest presentation alongside a statement from the personal attorney for President Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York. Giuliani said the case was the first “independent” appeal by the Supreme Court of the campaign.
The filing calls on judges to overturn three Pennsylvania Supreme Court rulings that facilitate some of the state’s election rules related to signature verification, election day observance, and postal voting statements . The state high court is said to have invaded the authority the U.S. Constitution gave state legislatures to hold elections.
“Collectively, these three decisions resulted in the count of approximately 2.6 million ballots for violating the law enacted by the Pennsylvania legislature,” Trump’s attorney, John Eastman, wrote in the presentation.
Eastman wrote that the cases involved “more than enough” voting to have affected the election result.
“The outcome of the U.S. presidential election remains in balance,” he added in a separate motion urging judges to take up the issue quickly, citing the upcoming Jan. 6 congressional deadline to count votes. of polling stations, and the inauguration on January 20th.
Eastman, a law professor at Fowler Law School at Chapman University, caused controversy in August when he published an article questioning the eligibility of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris to be president in a Newsweek opinion piece. A note from the editor was later added noting that the article “was being used by some as a tool to perpetuate racism and xenophobia.”
Eastman asked judges to schedule more writings before Christmas. In a motion for quick consideration, he wrote that a delay could not only harm Trump, “but that the nation as a whole may suffer injury from the resulting confusion.”
“In fact, the intense national and global attention on the 2020 presidential election only portends the disruption that can follow if the persistence of uncertainty and injustice surrounding these elections,” Eastman wrote.
Eastman asked the court for Kathy Boockvar, the secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, to respond to the presentation of the campaign Wednesday at noon.
The next-generation legal effort is unlikely to have a very large practical impact, although it occurs as Trump is increasingly desperate to seize power. On Friday, the president reportedly asked Oval Office aides about the appointment of a special attorney to investigate election fraud and raised a question about the application of martial law to seize the machines. to vote. He later denied the reports.
Meanwhile, formal transition mechanisms have continued at a good pace.
On January 6, Congress will meet in a joint session to formally count the votes of the Electoral College and declare Biden the winner. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in Congress, has warned members of his party not to try to block the announcement of Biden’s victory.
A spokesman for the Biden transition team did not respond to any requests for comment.
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