Trump campaign asks SCOTUS to take Wisconsin election case
U.S. President Donald Trump pumps his fist as he departs on the South Lawn of the White House, on December 12, 2020 in Washington, DC.
MILWAUKEE - President Donald Trump Tuesday, Dec. 29 asked the Supreme Court of the United States to review the Wisconsin Supreme Court decision which rejected his challenge of votes in Milwaukee and Dane counties.
Rudy Giuliani, the Trump campaign’s lead attorney, announced the campaign filed a petition for a Writ of Certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court challenging the Wisconsin Supreme Court decision "that allowed over 50,000 illegal absentee ballots in violation of Article II of the U.S. Constitution and Wisconsin law." The filing seeks expedited consideration before the Jan. 6 Congressional review of the Electoral College votes.
A statement from the campaign said it marks the second Constitutional challenge to illegal mail voting filed by the campaign following a petition from Pennsylvania filed on Dec. 20.
President Donald Trump walks from Marine One after arriving on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., Oct. 1, 2020. (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
"Regrettably, the Wisconsin Supreme Court, in their 4-3 decision, refused to address the merits of our claim," said President Trump's lead Wisconsin Attorney Jim Troupis in the statement. "This ‘Cert Petition’ asks them to address our claims, which, if allowed, would change the outcome of the election in Wisconsin. Three members of the Wisconsin State Supreme Court, including the Chief Justice, agreed with many of the President’s claims in written dissents from that court’s December 14 order."
The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Dec. 14 rejected Trump’s lawsuit attempting to overturn his loss to Democrat Joe Biden in the battleground state, ending Trump's legal challenges in state court about an hour before the Electoral College was to meet to cast the state's 10 votes for Biden.
The ruling came a day after a federal judge dismissed another Trump lawsuit seeking to overturn his loss in the state. Trump appealed that ruling.
Trump sought to have more than 221,000 ballots disqualified in Dane and Milwaukee counties, the state's two most heavily Democratic counties. He wanted to disqualify absentee ballots cast early and in-person, saying there wasn’t a proper written request made for the ballots; absentee ballots cast by people who claimed "indefinitely confined" status; absentee ballots collected by poll workers at Madison parks; and absentee ballots where clerks filled in missing information on ballot envelopes.
Biden won Wisconsin by about 20,600 votes, a margin of 0.6% that withstood a Trump-requested recount in Milwaukee and Dane counties, the two with the most Democratic votes. Trump did not challenge any ballots cast in the counties he won.
This is a developing story.