The U.S. Supreme Court inflicted a tough setback on President Donald Trump by rejecting a request from the Republican Party on Tuesday seeking to reverse President-elect Joe Biden’s certification of president-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the state of Pennsylvania.
From the very night of the election, President Donald Trump said he would seek to reach the highest court to challenge Biden’s victory, in what he has called, without any evidence, “mass fraud.”
However, the Supreme Court dismissed taking the case, implying that it does not intend to engage in post-election disputes.
“ The request for a precautionary measure (…) is denied,” reads in the brief text made pubic on Tuesday, which does not comment any further or suggest dissent among the nine judges of the Court, three of them appointed by the outgoing president.
The resolution comes on the day known as “safe harbor”, in which each state must certify its results before the Electoral College voting on December 14.
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Trump’s campaign, however, published a statement stating that “it is not unusual to continue the legal battle beyond safe harbor day” and that they will follow the legal process “even if the media try to proclaim that the battle ended.”
The legal battle
According to data collected by Democratic lawyer Marc E. Elias, as of Tuesday, Trump’s campaign has lost 50 of the 51 lawsuits it has filed in at least eight states to reverse the outcome of the elections.
The only one that prospered was a motion to allow observers to get closer to the counting tables in Pennsylvania.
In all cases, judges, many appointed by Republicans, have dismissed the allegations of fraud for lack of support and evidence.
However, Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani said a few weeks ago that the rejection of the judges would allow them to continue to ascend to the Supreme Court, where the president had placed his hopes to resolve a potential post-election litigation.
According to BBC Washington journalist Anthony Zurcher, Tuesday’s decision shows that the Court seeks to stay away from the dispute.
It remains to be seen what will happen to another appeal filed by the Texas government in the highest court and which seeks to reverse the result in eight states, all won by Biden.
The Texas lawsuit is unprecedented in U.S. history and many legal experts have questioned whether it could thrive in the Supreme Court, given that one state has no jurisdiction over the electoral process of others.
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