Chief Justice Roberts Prevents Conservative Colleagues from Handing GOP a Stay in Significant Pa. Mail-in Ballot Counting Case – By Nate Nahamo (Law and Crime) / Oct 19 2020
Chief Justice John Roberts joined the liberal wing of the Supreme Court in rejecting an application for a stay that was requested by Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania. The GOP asked the Supreme Court to put a stop to a state Supreme Court ruling that extended the deadline—by three days—for receiving and counting mail-in ballots for November’s presidential election.
But the 8-justice Supreme Court on Monday denied the application for the stay. The order only said that conservative Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh would have granted the application. There was no other message, leading us to the necessary conclusion that Chief Justice Roberts, and liberal Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan denied the application.
The Supreme Court’s rules say that five justices must vote in order to grant a stay. Here we had a 4-4 tie.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in favor of Democratic state lawmakers in September, finding that mail-in ballots received within three days of Nov. 3 must be counted so long as the envelopes are postmarked by Nov. 3. The ruling also said that ballot envelopes received by Nov. 6 that are not postmarked at all would also be counted, unless a “preponderance of the evidence demonstrates that it was mailed after Election Day.”
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