[WND] The U.S. Supreme Court has given Pennsylvania a deadline of two days after the presidential inauguration to respond to a challenge to the outcome of the 2020 election."This means that by the time [Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy] Boockvar and the others the Trump campaign is seeking to take to the Supreme Court even respond to the petition, president-elect Joe Biden will already be sworn in," Fox News noted.
President Trump held a lead of more than 700,000 votes in Pennsylvania shortly after the polls closed. But after huge "dumps" of ballots overnight almost exclusively for Biden arrived, the Democrat suddenly moved into the lead.
The justices said Boockvar has until Jan. 22 to respond. President Trump's campaign had asked for the court to set the deadline for this week.
The Jan. 22 deadline might become irrelevant, Fox News pointed out, because the court could decline to hear the case, saying it is moot or impossible to resolved at that point.
The lawsuit charges that non-legislative officials, often prompted by partisan third parties, "ignored or significantly altered and thereby violated state election law, including, most troublingly, laws enacted to minimize the risk of fraud in mail voting and thereby protect the integrity of the election process."
Trump personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani said the petition follows a related Pennsylvania case in which Justice Samuel Alito and two other justices observed "the constitutionality of the [Pennsylvania] Supreme Court’s decision [extending the statutory deadline for receipt of mail ballots from 8 pm on election day to 5 pm three days later] ... has national importance, and there is a strong likelihood that the State Supreme Court decision violates the Federal Constitution.'"
President Trump had called the legal filing "big news."