On Tuesday, the United States Supreme Court rejected a request from Pennsylvania Republicans to keep the state’s election results from being certified, attempting to block President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.
The defeat is another crushing blow to the Trump campaign, which has hinged its hopes of a second term on the courts. The campaign has repeatedly filed legal challenges in crucial swing states.
According to CNN, the one-line unsigned order, with no comments or dissents, held up a lower court decision that threw out a lawsuit that challenged the 2019 law that expanded mail-in voting in Pennsylvania.
“The application for injunctive relief presented to Justice Alito and by him referred to the Court is denied,” the order said.
The court was made up of six conservative justices, including Trump’s three nominees, and three liberal judges. This was the first election-related dispute that Amy Coney Barrett weighed in on.
The law called into question is Act 77, implementing a no-excuse absentee voting system for federal and state elections, setting the basis for the lawsuit led by Republican Congressman Kelly.
Kelly and fellow Republicans appealed to the Supreme Court after being thrown out of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, claiming the state’s ruling denied them access to judicial relief.
They asked the Supreme Court to intervene by blocking state officials from taking further steps to certify November’s presidential election results. Pennsylvania certified its results in late November, but states have until December 8 to resolve election issues.
