The Trump campaign on Sunday filed a petition for a writ of certiorari with the United States Supreme Court. The campaign is effectively asking the high court to review lower court decisions in the Donald J. Trump for President v. Kathy Boockvar, Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania case.
According to the petition, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court illegally changed the state's voting by-mail laws by extending the deadline ballots could be received and counted. The only way that can legally be changed is for the state legislature to pass legislation extending the deadline, something the Pennsylvania legislature failed to do. Instead, Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar extended the deadline three days later.
The Trump campaign also took issue with ballot counting and challenges that took place during the count. They claim Republican challengers who were allowed to be in the room had to be six feet away, which made it impossible for them to adequately validate each ballot being counted.
President Donald Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, contends that the cases are a direct "violation of Article II of the United States Constitution and Bush v. Gore." Giuliani believes the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's decision is a clear violation of the United States Constitution. Because of the State Supreme Court's decision, the campaign alleges more than 100,000 vote-by-mail ballots were illegally counted, which means there were "more than enough to have affected the outcome of the election, where the margin between the two principal candidates for President current stands at 80,558," the lawsuit states.
“The Campaign’s petition seeks to reverse three decisions which eviscerated the Pennsylvania Legislature’s protections against mail ballot fraud, including (a) prohibiting election officials checking whether signatures on mail ballots are genuine during canvassing on Election Day, (b) eliminating the right of campaigns to challenge mail ballots during canvassing for forged signatures and other irregularities, (c) holding that the rights of campaigns to observe the canvassing of mail ballots only meant that they only were allowed to be ‘in the room’ - in this case, the Philadelphia Convention Center – the size of several football fields, and (d) eliminating the statutory requirements that voters properly sign, address, and date mail ballots," Giuliani said in a statement.
The campaign wants to see the Supreme Court throw out all of the Pennsylvania electors that were committed to former Vice President Joe Biden. Instead, they want the Pennsylvania General Assembly to select replacements.
"The Campaign also moved for expedited consideration, asking the Supreme Court to order responses by December 23 and a reply by December 24 to allow the U.S. Supreme Court to rule before Congress meets on January 6 to consider the votes of the electoral college," Giuliani stated.
This is the first petition the Trump campaign has submitted to the Supreme Court, although others could potentially be in the works.
The news comes after the Electoral College officially named former Vice President Joe Biden the president-elect. Congress is scheduled to certify Joe Biden as the next president on January 6th.