President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court on Sunday appealing three decisions by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to change the rules of the 2020 election in disregard for the state legislature.
The petition cites Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution, which provides that each state shall appoint electors to the Electoral College “in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct.”
The Trump campaign argues that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court violated the Constitution in three separate decisions: “Statutory requirements were eliminated regarding signature verification, the right of campaigns to challenge invalid mail ballots, mandates that mail voters fill in, date, and sign mail ballot declarations, and even the right of campaigns to observe the mail ballot canvassing process in a meaningful way.”
Pennsylvania’s Democratic officials, the campaign argues, used these court rulings to apply unfair new voting rules, removing key safeguards against fraud (though the campaign does not provide evidence of fraud taking place).
The Trump campaign also argues, though attorney John Eastman, that even though Pennsylvania has certified its election results, and cast its Electoral College votes, the Court can vacate that vote prior to the certification of the Electoral College vote by Congress on January 6, or even prior to the Inauguration on January 20, directing the Republican-controlled state legislature to choose electors anew.
Legal experts suggest that the case does not have a strong chance of succeeding. The Supreme Court will decide Jan. 8 whether to hear a separate Pennsylvania challenge involving the counting of absentee votes received after Election Day.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His newest e-book is Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.