Sen. Ted Cruz issued a statement in support of an effort to persuade the Supreme Court to hear a Republican-led appeal to the Pennsylvania election results.
“Today, an emergency appeal was filed in the U.S. Supreme Court challenging the election results in Pennsylvania,” the Texas Republican said. “This appeal raises serious legal issues, and I believe the Court should hear the case on an expedited basis.”
Cruz argued the “Pennsylvania Constitution requires in-person voting,” and that the legislature’s changing of the law last year violates the state’s constitution.
“This appeal argues that Pennsylvania cannot change the rules in the middle of the game,” Cruz said. “If Pennsylvania wants to change how voting occurs, the state must follow the law to do so.”
Cruz also accused the Pennsylvania Supreme Court of having “ideological biases” due to the court’s current partisan makeup.
“The illegality was compounded by a partisan Democrat Supreme Court in Pennsylvania, which has issued multiple decisions that reflect their political and ideological biases,” Cruz said. “Just over a month ago, Justice Alito, along with Justice Thomas and Justice Gorsuch, wrote — correctly, I believe — concerning the Pennsylvania court’s previous decision to count ballots received after Election Day, that ‘there is a strong likelihood that the State Supreme Court decision violates the Federal Constitution.”
Cruz pointed out that the Pennsylvania court’s ruling relied on a “legal doctrine called ‘laches,'” which means the GOP waited too long to file their lawsuit.
“Even more persuasively, the plaintiffs point out that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has also held that plaintiffs don’t have standing to challenge an election law until after the election, meaning that the court effectively put them in a Catch-22: before the election, they lacked standing; after the election, they’ve delayed too long,” Cruz continued. “The result of the court’s gamesmanship is that a facially unconstitutional election law can never be judicially challenged.”
Cruz said that although the Supreme Court would typically prefer to stay out of state election disputes, the current situation required its attention.
“As of today, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling, 39 percent of Americans believe that ‘the election was rigged.’ That is not healthy for our democracy,” Cruz said. “The bitter division and acrimony we see across the nation needs resolution. And I believe the U.S. Supreme Court has a responsibility to the American people to ensure that we are following the law and following the Constitution. Hearing this case-now, on an emergency expedited basis-would be an important step in helping rebuild confidence in the integrity of our democratic system.”
