The Supreme Court declined on April 19 to hear a lawsuit regarding a Pennsylvania voting dispute nearly six months after the Nov. 3, 2020, election.
The court rejected an appeal from a Republican congressional candidate’s unsuccessful challenge of the state’s mail-in ballot initiatives, which is the final Nov. 3-related action to be dismissed related to Pennsylvania’s voting laws.
In a two-line order (pdf), the Supreme Court wrote: “The petition for a writ of certiorari is granted. The judgment is vacated, and the case is remanded to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit with instructions to dismiss the case as moot.”
The decision is the Supreme Court’s latest rejection of a slew of election lawsuits that came before and after the Nov. 3 election, as President Donald Trump and his Republican allies attempted to challenge the results.
The suit, which was filed by GOP congressional candidate Jim Bognet, concerned whether the Pennsylvania Supreme Court exceeded its authority by allowing greater access to early and mail-in voting in Pennsylvania, which, he argued, circumvented the state General Assembly’s authority. Four individual voters joined Bognet, who ultimately lost his congressional bid.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court had ruled in 2020 that extended mail-ballots could come in until three days after Election Day.
Trump and other Republicans have said that President Joe Biden had unfairly benefited from relaxed mail-in balloting measures that were implemented due to the CCP virus pandemic.
Bognet’s case was initially dismissed by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, saying that neither Bognet nor the other challengers had the legal right to bring the case.
