The U.S. Supreme Court on Sunday changed the key deadline in U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly's lawsuit from Dec. 9 to Dec. 8 at 9 a.m.
That is the deadline for Pennsylvania officials to respond to Kelly's emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Justice Samuel Alito, who is assigned the emergency request, could then act upon it.
Earlier story, published Saturday:
Time is running out for U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly in his effort to overturn the results of the presidential election in Pennsylvania.
His emergency request for an appeal to set aside the results is still alive in the U.S. Supreme Court.
But a scheduling order filed Thursday shows that the high court has no intention of ruling on the appeal, if at all, ahead of a critical deadline for ensuring that the electoral process continues uninterrupted.
The order gives Pennsylvania officials until Wednesday, Dec. 9, to respond to Kelly's appeal, filed Tuesday and docketed Thursday.
The safe harbor deadline refers to the fact, under federal law, the date for establishing the final results must occur six days before the Electoral College casts the electoral ballots to make the results of the presidential election official and final. In 2020, the Electoral College meets on Dec. 14.
The Supreme Court could still decide to hear Kelly's appeal, in which he claims the mechanism for mail-in votes in Pennsylvania is unconstitutional and that the state's more than 2.5 million mail-in ballots should be tossed. But, based on Thursday's scheduling order, any ruling, barring extraordinary circumstances, would come too late to affect the results of the election in Pennsylvania, foiling a quest that was a longshot for Kelly from the start.
Kelly's lawyer, Gregory Teufel, of Pittsburgh, could not be immediately reached for comment on the scheduling order. Kelly's office has said the congressman filed the suit as private citizen and taxpayers are not funding it. Kelly has not responded to requests for comment that the Erie Times-News has made through his office.
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, an appointee of Republican George W. Bush, filed the scheduling order. He handles emergency requests that originate in the states that make up the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, whose jurisdiction includes Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.
Kelly, of Butler, represents the 16th Congressional District, which includes Erie. Kelly, 72, who was reelected to a sixth term in the House of Representatives on Nov. 3, is an ally in Trump's attempts to invalidate the election results and overturn Biden's win based on unfounded claims of fraud or the counting of "illegal" votes.
Kelly and seven other Republicans launched their legal challenge on Nov. 21. They sued in Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court, claiming that the 2019 state law that authorized universal, no-excuses mail-in voting is unconstitutional and that only an amendment to the state constitution would have made universal mail-in voting legal in Pennsylvania.
Kelly sued to get the mail-in ballots invalidated or have the courts direct the GOP-controlled Pennsylvania General Assembly to pick Pennsylvania’s 20 presidential electors, who all favor Biden as a result of the election.
Kelly got a favorable ruling from a Commonwealth Court judge, who ordered the certification of the vote in Pennsylvania halted while she heard the case.
But on Saturday, the state Supreme Court unanimously dismissed Kelly's case, ruling that he hwaited too long to challenge the 2019 law, which the General Assembly passed with bipartisan support.
Kelly appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, and also asked the state Supreme Court to stay its order against him until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled. The state Supreme Court unanimously rejected that request on Thursday, leaving the certification of the vote to stand.
Also on Thursday, the Republican leaders in the Pennsylvania General Assembly undercut any plan to somehow pick 20 new electors in Pennsylvania loyal to Trump.
Democrats objected to the plans of the Republican majority to investigate the election, calling it "a fanciful quest in pursuit of fraud."
This article originally appeared on USA Today.
