The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a Republican application to stay the decision of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to grant the Democratic Party’s request to make several changes to mail-in voting that critics have decried as vulnerable to fraud.
As Breitbart News reported last month, “The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled … that ballots received three days after Election Day will still be counted — even if there is no evidence they were postmarked on time.”
Republicans sought a stay.
The Supreme Court, however, split 4-4 on the request, leaving the decision of the lower court in place. Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the Court’s liberal minority; the remaining four conservative justices sided with the Republican request.
Supreme Court splits 4-4, leaves Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision in place allowing more time for mail-in voting. Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh would have granted GOP request to block the Pennsylvania court’s ruling. pic.twitter.com/MFiQ9EKzSG
— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) October 19, 2020
The Court currently has only eight justices, due to the passing last month of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
President Donald Trump has nominated Judge Amy Coney Barrett to replace Ginsburg.
In an interview with Breitbart News Daily earlier this month, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) pointed out the need to have a ninth judge before the election to decide close election cases.
Cruz said Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s possible confirmation to the Supreme Court would provide the ninth justice needed to avoid a four-four division over post-election legal battles.
“It’s one of the reasons why it is so important that the Senate confirm Judge Barrett, because if the Supreme Court only has eight justices, eight justices can divide four to four,” Cruz noted. “An equally divided court has no authority to decide anything. So if we have this chaos of litigation, if the Supreme Court is equally divided, there is no resolution and we’re in a constitutional crisis.”
Cruz warned, “If the Supreme Court is divided four-four, there is no answer. You just sty in the chaos, and and that’s why I think it is so important to have fully functioning court.”
Cruz concluded, “There were four justices in Bush versus Gore that were happy to say keep on recounting, keep counting until you find find more Al Gore votes, and that’s dangerous.”
Barrett is expected to be voted out of the Senate Judiciary Committee this week and to be confirmed by the full Senate next week.
Pennsylvania is considered a key battleground state in the 2020 presidential election.
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 The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency. 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.
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