Thread by @ZoeTillman

State of play on Trump campaign/GOP litigation in Pennsylvania:
- On Saturday, a federal judge dismissed (and demolished) Trump's big swing to stop the state from certifying Biden as the state's winner: 
buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…

- The campaign appealed to the 3rd Circuit, but contrary to their insistence this weekend that this puts them on a fast track to SCOTUS, what they're asking for is to go *back to the district court* and get a chance to press their second amended complaint assets.documentcloud.org/documents/7332…

- The judge had dismissed the campaign's first amended complaint (which they filed after the 3rd Circuit issued an opinion in another case, Bognet, that undercut much of the legal foundation of the campaign's complaint), and denied its request for leave to file a second one

- Speaking of amended pleadings: The campaign filed for expedited review in the 3rd Circuit yesterday, but filed a new version today because they had to clarify that they're not waiving a challenge to the substance of Saturday's ruling dismissing their case

- Note that Rudy Giuliani is not listed on the campaign's filings in the 3rd Circuit so far. As the court explains in this notice, lawyers who aren't members of the court's bar can't be specially admitted (like Rudy was in the district court) unless they're pro bono

- What's next? The 3rd Circuit granted the campaign's request for expedited review. The campaign's brief is due today by 4pm, and the briefs from PA/the PA counties named as defendants are due by 4pm tomorrow. No argument scheduled so far.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in PA:
- There's an emergency motion this a.m. in the PA Supreme Court to stop Allegheny County from certifying election results today while the court considers what to do about absentee ballots with defects e.g. missing date or address

- The challenger won this case on appeal re: 2,349 absentee ballots with defects in Allegheny County, but it's been consolidated in the PA Supreme Court with other cases where a lower court ruled Philadelphia could count 8K+ ballots w/ similar defects

- Although per @julianrouth with the @PittsburghPG, Allegheny County has certified the results there this morning -->

https://twitter.com/julianrouth/status/1330891189109874690

@julianrouth @PittsburghPG - In Bucks County, the Trump campaign appealed the rejection of a challenge to 1,995 ballots (e.g. missing info on envelope/secrecy envelope issue) — the DNC/Bucks County are asking the PA Supreme Court to step in asap since the county has to certify today assets.documentcloud.org/documents/7332…

@julianrouth @PittsburghPG - There's also a new case in PA Commonwealth Court filed by GOP Rep. Mike Kelly and other Rs, lodging a sweeping challenge to expanded mail-in voting in PA — a law passed in *October 2019* — and seeking to stop the state from certifying election results: 
assets.documentcloud.org/documents/7332…

@julianrouth @PittsburghPG - Kelly et al. filed a motion yesterday for an emergency injunction blocking PA from certifying election results, but the timing of this case (re: a law passed in October 2019) is likely to be a major barrier in convincing a court it must act ASAP

@julianrouth @PittsburghPG New: In Westmoreland County, PA, a judge sided with a GOP state senate candidate challenging 204 provisional ballots where poll workers may have incorrectly directed voters to also sign a poll book indicating they voted at a machine assets.documentcloud.org/documents/7332…

The judge also ordered the county not to count 12 prov. ballots missing secrecy envelopes = 216 ballots.

The candidate, Nicole Ziccarelli, has been one of the only successful GOP challengers to election results nationwide so far and it's resulted in ~2,800 ballots not counted

To put 2,800 ballots in context, Biden is leading Pennsylvania by more than 81K votes, according to the SoS's election results site — and the PA Supreme Court is considering whether to reverse the previous wins that Ziccarelli scored in Allegheny County

Speaking of Ziccarelli's challenge to 2,349 ballots with deficiencies in Allegheny County, PA — the county's lawyers just filed notice that it's moot because the county certified its results without including the ballots at issue in that case

This underscores a big problem for Trump's case in PA, and one reason Giuliani et al. are focusing their appeal on being allowed to press a 2nd amended complaint — the current version only seeks to halt certification, so if PA certifies while the case is pending, it's likely moot

Note the difference between the 1st amended complaint and the 2nd in terms of what the Trump campaign is asking for — the former is just halting certification, while the latter alternatively asks the court for an order that would let the PA General Assembly choose electors

New: The Trump campaign has now asked the 3rd Circuit for permission to file a motion for an emergency restraining order to halt the "effect" of PA's "likely" certification of election results — they don't explain what exactly that means assets.documentcloud.org/documents/7332…

NEW: The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has rejected the Trump campaign's challenge to 8,329 absentee ballots in Philadelphia missing certain info on the envelope AND reversed an order that invalidated 2,349 ballots in Allegheny County for the same reason assets.documentcloud.org/documents/7332…

This was a set of cases where the Trump campaign argued counties could not count absentee ballots with facial deficiencies (e.g. missing voter info on the outer envelope) — and they explicitly did *not* allege fraud

"...failures to include a handwritten name, address or date in the voter declaration on the back of the outer envelope, while constituting technical violations of the Election Code, do not warrant the wholesale disenfranchisement of thousands of Pennsylvania voters."

Four members of the PA Supreme Court partially dissent, explaining they believe that absentee ballots should be rejected if they're missing a date with the voter's signature assets.documentcloud.org/documents/7332… and
assets.documentcloud.org/documents/7332…

Back in the 3rd Circuit, here's the Trump campaign's brief arguing the district judge was wrong to deny their request to file a 2nd amended complaint (they throw prev. counsel under the bus for "incorrectly" filing the narrowed 1st amended complaint) assets.documentcloud.org/documents/7332…

They argue the judge was wrong to say they're trying to disenfranchise all PA voters when the injunction motion "only" seeks to invalidate "defective" ballots among 1.5M cast in certain counties. But the *complaint* does, in fact, seek to stop PA from certifying results statewide

And here's the Trump campaign's motion for a TRO asking the 3rd Circuit to stay the legal "effect" of PA certifying the election for Biden pending appeal (#AppellateTwitter has confirmed that, procedurally, you can't ask a circuit court for a TRO) assets.documentcloud.org/documents/7332…

It's still not clear what staying the "effect" of certification would mean — there's a reference to the appointment of electors, but nothing is going to really happen until the Dec. 8 "safe harbor" deadline for finalizing everything before the Electoral College meets Dec. 14