PHILADELPHIA – Following a ruling from the U.S. District Court for the Middle District Court of Pennsylvania, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit unanimously dismissed the efforts of President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign to overturn President-Elect Joe Biden’s win in the state of Pennsylvania.
The original suit was filed against Secretary of the Commonwealth Kathy Boockvar and the Boards of Elections of the following seven counties: Allegheny, Centre, Chester, Delaware, Philadelphia, Montgomery and Northampton.
It claimed that observers were not permitted to witness the counting of over 682,000 votes in heavily-Democratic Philadelphia and Allegheny counties, and further seeks the dismissal of additional mail-in ballots which the campaign said were allowed to be cured, despite being defective.
The suit further alleged that the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s lack of uniform procedure based in election law created an unconstitutional and “two-track” ballot counting system that gave the win to Biden.
An amended version of the suit filed on Nov. 15 dropped the improper poll-watching claims, and what remained were allegations targeting county election officials for their supposed improper handling of mail-in ballots and violation of state election law.
Counsel for the Trump campaign recently sought to file a second amended complaint, citing “extraordinary circumstances” and the improper withdrawal of its prior claims – but U.S. District Court Judge Matthew W. Brann ruled strongly against any such move blocking certification of the state’s election results, throwing out the suit on Nov. 21.
“Plaintiffs ask this Court to disenfranchise almost seven million voters. This Court has been unable to find any case in which a plaintiff has sought such a drastic remedy in the contest of an election, in terms of the sheer volume of votes asked to be invalidated,” Brann said.
“This court has been presented with strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations, unpled in the operative complaint and unsupported by evidence. In the United States of America, this cannot justify the disenfranchisement of a single voter, let alone all the voters of its sixth most populated state. Our people, laws and institutions demand more,” Brann stated.
After an expedited appeal of Brann’s ruling preventing further amending of its case to the Third Circuit, the Trump campaign fared no better at the federal appellate level.
Judges D. Brooks Smith, Michael A. Chagares and Stephanos Bibas unanimously rejected the Trump campaign’s case, with Bibas authoring the Court’s opinion.
Bibas was appointed by Trump in 2017.
“Free, fair elections are the lifeblood of our democracy. Charges of unfairness are serious. But calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here,” Bibas said.
Bibas denied that Brann abused his discretion when he chose not to permit the Trump campaign to continue amending its case.
“The campaign tries to repackage these state-law claims as unconstitutional discrimination. Yet its allegations are vague and conclusory. It never alleges that anyone treated the Trump campaign or Trump votes worse than it treated the Biden campaign or Biden votes. And federal law does not require poll watchers or specify how they may observe,” Bibas stated.
“It also says nothing about curing technical state-law errors in ballots. Each of these defects is fatal and the proposed second amended complaint does not fix them. So the District Court properly denied leave to amend again.”
Bibas added the Trump campaign also did not deserve an injunction to undo Pennsylvania’s certification of its votes.
“The campaign’s claims have no merit. The number of ballots it specifically challenges is far smaller than the roughly 81,000-vote margin of victory. And it never claims fraud or that any votes were cast by illegal voters,” Bibas concluded.
“Plus, tossing out millions of mail-in ballots would be drastic and unprecedented, disenfranchising a huge swath of the electorate and upsetting all down-ballot races too. That remedy would be grossly disproportionate to the procedural challenges raised. So we deny the motion for an injunction pending appeal.”
Jenna Ellis, counsel to the president, issued a statement on the Third Circuit’s ruling on behalf of herself and fellow counsel Rudolph Giuliani.
“The activist judicial machinery in Pennsylvania continues to cover up the allegations of massive fraud. We are very thankful to have had the opportunity to present proof and the facts to the PA state legislature. On to [the U.S. Supreme Court],” Ellis said.
Whether the U.S. Supreme Court decides to hear the Trump campaign’s case remains to be seen.
The final, certified vote count in Pennsylvania released on Nov. 24 showed Biden defeated Trump by 81,660 votes.
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit case 20-3371
U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania case 4:20-cv-02078
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com