Monday's order list said without comment or dissent that the justices denied expedited consideration of petitions for review in seven suits across the five states, meaning the court would not fast-track its decision on whether to hear the cases — let alone decide them — before the constitutionally mandated end of Trump's term Jan. 20.
"The motions of petitioners to expedite consideration of the petitions for writs of certiorari are denied," the order list said.
The challenges included Trump's bid for a new hearing in Pennsylvania over voters who were allowed to fix or replace rejected ballots, a Republican member of Congress's effort to reject all of Pennsylvania's mail-in votes as unconstitutional, claims that challengers didn't get enough time to inspect Arizona ballots, Trump's appeal of a Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling on absentee ballots, and suits led by pro-Trump attorneys L. Lin Wood and Sidney Powell in Georgia and Michigan.
Justices had previously weighed in briefly on U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly's Pennsylvania case, denying him and several other unsuccessful candidates an injunction that would have blocked the Dec. 8 certification of the Keystone State's election results.
Kelly, who also objected to Pennsylvania's electoral votes last week just after pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol, had claimed the law enabling Pennsylvania's mail-in voting had been passed by the Republican-controlled state legislature in violation of the Pennsylvania Constitution, but his case was rejected by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court as coming too late after the law had already been used in the state's primary and general elections.
Most of the other cases had not even gotten as far as responses from the states and election officials being challenged.
"We are disappointed by the court's refusal to expedite its consideration of the petition for certiorari, but waiting this long to rule on the motion to expedite effectively amounted to a denial already, so at this point it is not a surprise," said Gregory Teufel of OGC Law, representing Kelly. "The respondents' response is due on Jan. 14. So there was no time left to expedite that response."
Teufel said he hoped the court would still take up the Pennsylvania mail-voting case soon, since ballots for the state's May 2021 primary elections can be mailed out starting as soon as February.
Counsel for Trump and the other challengers did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday.
President Trump and the other challengers are represented by R. George Burnett of Conway Olejniczak & Jerry, James R. Troupis of Troupis Law Office and Kenneth Chesebro; Dennis I. Wilenchik and John D. Wilenchik of Wilenchik & Bartness; Howard Kleinhendler, Sidney Powell and Stefanie Lambert Junttila; Harry W. MacDougald of Caldwell Propst & Deloach LLP and L. Lin Wood; Gregory Teufel of OGC Law LLC; William Bock III of Kroger Gardis & Regas LLP; Bruce S. Marks of Marks & Sokolov LLC and John C. Eastman.
The cases are Wood v. Raffensperger et al., case number 20-799; Ward v. Jackson et al., case number 20-809; Kelly et al. v. Pennsylvania et al., case number 20-810; King et al. v. Whitmer et al., case number 20-815; Donald J. Trump for President Inc. v. Boockvar et al., case number 20-845; Trump et al. v. Biden et al., case number 20-882; and Trump v. Wisconsin Elections Commission et al., case number 20-883; in the Supreme Court of the United States.
--Editing by Orlando Lorenzo.
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