President Trump’s campaign repeatedly cited the US Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in the 2000 election in a bid Wednesday to keep challenging Joe Biden’s projected victory in Pennsylvania.
Lawyers Marc Scaringi and Brian Caffrey alleged in court papers that Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar allowed voters to “cure,” or fix, their improperly cast absentee and mail-in ballots in Democratic-leaning counties while officials in other counties “adhered to the law.”
“Under Bush v. Gore, presidential candidates have an interest in having lawful votes counted and unlawful votes invalidated,” they wrote.
“This is particularly true in Pennsylvania, a…swing state where the vote margin is close. While Defendants breathlessly elide the merits, Plaintiffs have unquestionably suffered constitutionally redressable injury.”
The Trump campaign’s Williamsport, Penn., federal court filing also pointed to a Tuesday ruling by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that overturned a Nov. 5 order mandating that election observers be allowed to monitor vote-counting operations from six feet away.
“If this decision is correct, the Pennsylvania mail ballot voting system is so porous that it violates Due Process,” the lawyers wrote.
“Of course, under Bush v. Gore…this Court need not accept the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s interpretation of state law on an issue which impacts a presidential election.”
In addition, they said, “this decision represents a vast departure from Pennsylvania precedent, a change in law in the middle of a presidential election which is also improper under Bush v. Gore.”
The Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling in Bush v. Gore ruling halted controversial recount efforts in Florida, effectively giving Texas Gov. George W. Bush a victory there over Vice President Al Gore, who conceded the race the next day.
Wednesday’s filing came after federal Judge Matthew Brann canceled a scheduled evidentiary hearing set for Thursday and instead ordered the Trump campaign to respond in writing to motions by Boockvar and others to dismiss its suit.
The court papers also said that “confusion” created when the lead lawyers quit the case last week led to numerous allegations of wrongdoing being “inadvertently” left out of a revised version of the suit that was filed Sunday.
Following the hiring of former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and other new lawyers, the campaign plans to again revise its suit “to make clear that there was intentional misconduct…which deliberately excluded Republican/Trump observers from the canvassing” of the votes, according to Wednesday’s filing.
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