US ELECTION: The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the postal vote in Pennsylvania
In one concise sentence, the United States Supreme Court refused to interfere with the results of the American presidential election. On Tuesday, the highest US court dismissed an appeal by Republicans in Pennsylvania, who sought to block certification of results and reject more than 2 million mail ballots. Even if the challenges of Donald Trump are not over, his chances of overturning the verdict of the ballot box are now zero.
🔴Breaking: En une phrase, la Cour suprême des Etats-Unis refuse d’accorder une injonction et rejette le recours des Républicains de Pennsylvanie. RIP pour les recours de Trump (ça sera pareil pour celui du Texas) #SupremeCourt pic.twitter.com/MSvFqRXYZN
— Philippe Berry (@ptiberry) December 8, 2020
“The application for an injunction presented by Judge Alito and referred by him to the Court is rejected,” wrote the Court, without further explanation. The opinion, in 19 words, and the absence of a dissenting opinion (“public dissent”) mean, however, that there was no real suspense, despite the presence of three judges appointed by Donald Trump out of nine.
Texas Remedies
In court, Donald Trump and his allies are in total 50 defeats for a single victory. On Tuesday, Texas went directly to the United States Supreme Court to file a complaint against four states (Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia and Wisconsin), arguing that the changes they had adopted to facilitate postal voting were unconstitutional.
But according to many legal experts, Texas’ claim is no better off. Each state has in fact a great deal of latitude to organize the modalities of the ballot, and it is up to the local judicial systems to decide. If the Supreme Court refused to intervene for Pennsylvania, it should logically oppose the same end of inadmissibility to the recourse of Texas, especially after the expiration of the “safe harbour” (the deadline to resolve all appeals) this Tuesday at midnight. Now, according to a 19th-century law, states can no longer change the list of grand voters who will vote in the electoral college on December 14th.
These serial setbacks, however, do not mean the end of Donald Trump’s efforts: Republican elected officials loyal to the US president announced their intention to challenge the validity of the large voters in several states during the vote in Congress on January 6th. Minority in the House, however, they have no chance of success, and it is Joe Biden who will be sworn in on January 20th.
