WASHINGTON, Dec 4, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Allies of President Donald Trump
sought an emergency order Thursday from the US Supreme Court blocking the
certification of election results in Pennsylvania, a key state won by
President-elect Joe Biden.
The move follows the Pennsylvania state supreme court’s rejection Saturday
of a suit challenging expanded mail-in voting in the key northeastern state.
In the motion filed Thursday the top US court is not asked to rule on the
merits of the case at this point.
Rather, the plaintiffs ask the court for an injunction to halt any
remaining steps in the election certification, which was actually done last
week, so the plaintiffs can develop their arguments. They include Mike Kelly,
a Republican member of the House of Representatives.
The court is expected to respond quickly in writing and is not obliged to
explain whatever ruling it makes.
Trump is still refusing to concede defeat in the November 3 election,
alleging without providing evidence that there was widespread fraud in both
voting and vote counting, and that the election was stolen from him.
The Trump campaign and Trump allies have filed a flurry of lawsuits in
battleground states that he lost, seeking to overturn the results. In some
20-odd cases, however, the courts have rejected these suits.
On Tuesday Attorney General Bill Barr, a close ally of the president,
broke with Trump and said there was no evidence of significant fraud to
invalidate Biden’s win.
Trump appointed three conservatives to the nine-member court during his
presidency and said right after the November election he was prepared to go
all the way to that tribunal to defend what he called his re-election
victory.
In the 2000 presidential election the high court halted a recount in
Florida while George W. Bush held a 537-vote lead over Al Gore, handing Bush
the presidency.
This time is different: There is not just one but several states that
Trump is disputing and the margins of victory for Biden there are much larger
than Bush’s was.
The Supreme Court is considered unlikely to risk its reputation by getting
involved in the Pennsylvania suit, which would not change the overall outcome
of the election anyway.