Republican lawmakers, lead by Rep. Mike Kelly from Pennsylvania, has petitioned the Supreme Court to stop Pennsylvania from certifying their election results:
NEW: Trump election challenge now at SCOTUS. Pennsylvania state representative challenges election results in his state, saying it was illegal for state legislature to expand mail-in voting late last year. pic.twitter.com/hVra2LJLvP
— Steven Mazie (@stevenmazie) December 4, 2020
This is the case we’ve been reporting on regarding the Pennsylvania legislature writing an unconstitutional 2019 law expanding mail-in balloting, and the one that Ted Cruz asked the high court to take up.
Justice Alito, who is responsible for Pennsylvania, did not just dismiss the lawsuit. Rather he asked Pennsylvania officials to respond by next Wednesday:
The application goes to Justice Alito, who is assigned to handle such requests from this region of the country. He told Pennsylvania officials tonight to respond to the lawsuit in writing by December 9.
— Steven Mazie (@stevenmazie) December 4, 2020
But Mazie, who reported this a few minutes ago, says the “safe-harbor deadline (by which states must confirm results to make them “conclusive”) is Dec. 8” and that the “electoral college votes on Dec. 14.” In other words, he says that “by the time Kelly files final brief on Dec. 10 or so, the challenge will be moot.”
Six days from now is an eternity on the electoral clock: Safe-harbor deadline (by which states must confirm results to make them “conclusive”) is Dec. 8, electoral college votes on Dec. 14. By the time Kelly files final brief on Dec. 10 or so, the challenge will be moot.
— Steven Mazie (@stevenmazie) December 4, 2020
I reached out to Ed Morrissey, who knows a lot more about this than I do, and he says that he agrees with Mazie’s analysis. So I guess we’ll wait to see if something different happens other than the expected.
UPDATE: As I’ve been looking into this, I think what’s missing here is that the ultimate remedy here isn’t expected from the Supreme Court. The lawsuit is asking the Supreme Court to rule the law unconstitutional. If that happens, the remedy may go to Congress who has to ultimately accept (or dispute) the electoral votes for each state. Also, a ruling like this from the Supreme Court would have further implications in 2024 as well. As we all agree, even if Biden prevails in this election, this mail-in balloting fiasco has to be fixed if anyone will ever have confidence in it again.