SCOTUS Rejects GOP Bid On PA Ballots Deadline

Pittsburgh’s CBS News affiliate reports:

The Supreme Court of the United States has rejected Republican requests to block extended ballots past Nov. 3 in Pennsylvania. The Supreme Court will not expedite the request from state Republicans to end the extended deadline for receiving mail-in ballots.

The court’s order on Wednesday left open the possibility that the justices could take up and decide after the voting whether a three-day extension to receive and count absentee ballots ordered by the state’s high court was proper.

New Justice Amy Coney Barrett did not participate “because of the need for a prompt resolution of it and because she has not had time to fully review the parties’ filings,” court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said in an email.

SCOTUS is staying out of the PA election fight for now. In separate statement, Alito suggests that the court could potentially intervene after the election if late-arriving ballots change the results. Here’s the order. Justice Barrett did not participate. https://t.co/wavNt1Edk9 https://t.co/SuFbLUEviU pic.twitter.com/4WQ2E1LmqV

— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) October 28, 2020

Clarification: “Change the results” was imprecise phrasing on our part (and not used in the Alito opinion). What the opinion suggests is that, if late-arriving ballots are determinative, the court could still weigh in.

— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) October 28, 2020