Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has called on the U.S. Supreme Court to consider a Republican challenge to Pennsylvania’s election results as soon as possible.
According to The Hill, the Texas senator is the first in the upper chamber to endorse an effort by GOP Rep. Mike Kelly (PA) to have the Supreme Court intervene in a lawsuit over mail-in ballots in the Keystone State.
“Today, an emergency appeal was filed in the U.S. Supreme Court challenging the election results in Pennsylvania. This appeal raises serious legal issues, and I believe the Court should hear the case on an expedited basis,” Cruz wrote in a statement Tuesday.
#SCOTUS should hear the emergency appeal on the Pennsylvania election challenge. pic.twitter.com/mzwr4eaHR8
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) December 1, 2020
“A catch-22”
Cruz was referring to a case brought by Kelly and other Republicans that seeks to have hundreds of thousands of mail-in ballots dismissed. According to the Washington Examiner, Republicans argue that Act 77, a law passed last year that allows no-excuse mail-in voting in Pennsylvania, was illegal without an amendment to the state constitution.
Kelly asked the United States Supreme Court to take up the case this week after it was dismissed by Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. That court said the lawsuit came too late and was asking for Pennsylvanians to be disenfranchised.
Echoing the plaintiffs, Cruz slammed Act 77 as unconstitutional and accused the “partisan” court of “gamesmanship” in their handling of the case.
“[T]he plaintiffs point out that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has also held that plaintiffs don’t have standing to challenge an election law until after the election, meaning that the court effectively put them in a Catch-22: before the election, they lacked standing; after the election, they’ve delayed too long,” Cruz said in his Tuesday statement. “The result of the court’s gamesmanship is that a facially unconstitutional election law can never be judicially challenged.”
Cruz also said the court showed “bias” with its previous decision to allow mail-in ballots past Election Day, a controversial move that Republicans also appealed to the SCOTUS — unsuccessfully.
“Resolution” needed
Pennsylvania is just one of a handful of closely contested states where Donald Trump and his allies have challenged the results of the presidential election. The state’s Supreme Court dismissed a separate request Thursday from Kelly to stay their ruling, The Hill reported.
While the Supreme Court should “ordinarily” stay out of such cases, Cruz said Tuesday that resolution is needed given the “bitter division and acrimony” surrounding the election. “This appeal argues that Pennsylvania cannot change the rules in the middle of the game,” he wrote.
Cruz added:
The bitter division and acrimony we see across the nation needs resolution. And I believe the U.S. Supreme Court has a responsibility to the American people to ensure that we are following the law and following the Constitution. Hearing this case — now, on an emergency expedited basis — would be an important step in helping rebuild confidence in the integrity of our democratic system.
The post Ted Cruz calls on SCOTUS to hear GOP challenge to election results in Pennsylvania: Report first appeared on Conservative Institute.
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