The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Thursday refused to halt its previous ruling rejecting a last-ditch GOP bid to prevent further action on the certification of the 2020 election results in the state.
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom WolfTom WolfPennsylvania Supreme Court refuses to halt GOP defeat in election lawsuit Pennsylvania Supreme Court strikes down GOP bid to stop election certification Trump says he’ll leave White House if Biden declared winner of Electoral College MORE (D) certified President-elect Joe BidenJoe BidenBiden says GOP senators have called to congratulate him Biden: Trump attending inauguration is ‘of consequence’ to the country Biden says family will avoid business conflicts MORE’s win early last week, making it unclear what effect, if any, the long-shot Republican legal challenge would have on the race.
Still, GOP challengers will file an emergency injunction request Thursday afternoon to the U.S. Supreme Court before filing a more formal appeal request to the justices, their attorney Gregory Teufel told The Hill.
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According to election law experts, courts are extremely reluctant to disturb election results that have already been certified.
Among the plaintiffs in the suit in the Keystone State is President TrumpDonald John TrumpBiden says GOP senators have called to congratulate him Biden: Trump attending inauguration is ‘of consequence’ to the country Biden says family will avoid business conflicts MORE’s ally Rep. Mike KellyGeorge (Mike) Joseph KellyPennsylvania Supreme Court refuses to halt GOP defeat in election lawsuit Cruz urges Supreme Court to take up Pennsylvania election challenge Lieutenant governor: Trump campaign would get its ‘clock cleaned’ if it appeals Pennsylvania ruling to Supreme Court MORE (R-Pa.). The challengers’ original complaint, filed in Pennsylvania state court late last month, sought to strike down an expanded mail ballot policy that Pennsylvania put in place in 2019 after it was passed by the state’s GOP-held legislature.
Biden won three of every four mail-in ballots cast in the state, according to an analysis of Pennsylvania Department of State data by The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Last week the Pennsylvania Supreme Court tossed the case, citing the litigants’ undue delay in bringing the challenge. The court dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice, meaning its ruling was final and that litigants would be prohibited from trying another lawsuit in state court based on the same grounds.
The court’s decision Thursday to deny Republicans’ stay request is likely the last meaningful activity the case will see at the state level.
The defeat Thursday was just the latest blow to an increasingly desperate legal effort by the Trump campaign and its Republican allies to use lawsuits to try to overturn the result of the national election that Biden won by more than 6 million votes.
In at least one of its post-election lawsuits, opposing counsel asked a court to impose sanctions on the Trump campaign for unprofessional conduct, though a federal judge in Michigan overseeing the case declined to do so.