(Headline USA) The Supreme Court on Monday formally rejected a handful of cases related to the 2020 election, including disputes from Pennsylvania that had divided the justices just before the election.
The cases the justices rejected involved election challenges filed by former President Donald Trump and his allies in five battleground states in which Joe Biden was determined the victor: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Other than the disputes from Pennsylvania, the justices’ decision not to hear the cases was unsurprising.
The court had previously taken no action in those cases and in January had turned away pleas that the cases be fast-tracked, again suggesting the justices were not interested in hearing them.
At the same time, the justices’ decision not to hear Pennsylvania disputes involving a Republican challenge to state courts’ power over federal elections continued to provoke strong feelings from some of the justices.
On Monday, three of the nine justices said the court should have taken up the issue.
“A decision in these cases would not have any implications regarding the 2020 election…But a decision would provide invaluable guidance for future elections,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote.
Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Neil Gorsuch also would have taken up the issue.
Thomas wrote that the court was inviting “further confusion and erosion of voter confidence” by not taking up the issue.
Republican Rep. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania, one of the plaintiffs in one of the Keystone State cases, was not happy that the justices declined his case.
“It is astounding that our nation’s highest court was unwilling to hear arguments in a case that called on the Court to require states to follow their own constitutions in the conduct of federal elections,” he said in statement. “Act 77 expressly violates the Pennsylvania Constitution and the only court to consider the merits acknowledged the strength of our argument and said we were likely to succeed.”
Act 77 made mail-in voting universal for Pennsylvanians, which Kelly contended violated his state’s constitution.
Adapted from reporting by Associated Press.
