Supreme Court deals setback to Trump on absentee ballots

the supreme court now allowing extended deadlines for absentee ballots in Pennsylvania and North Carolina the two rulings dealing a setback for president trump and a victory to joe Biden brian Janis is life in beaver Pennsylvania with a look at how this is playing out in the keystone state brian good morning Sandra good morning a little context here back in September the Pennsylvania supreme court decided to allow absentee mail-in ballots to be received and counted three days up to three days after election day that affects some three million Pennsylvanian voters who have chosen to who have been sent those mail-in ballots the republicans in this state challenged that saying that look the court doesn’t have the power to make that decision that lies with the state legislator this u.s supreme court took up the case and it was a 4-4 split tie the decision was upheld but now republicans tried one last time to get u.s supreme court to hear this case

before election day and in a decision that was released u.s supreme court said look simply we do not have enough time to take up this case so, therefore, the three-day extension stays in place in Pennsylvania look at this statement released by justices Alito Gorsuch and Thomas who reluctantly say that they are aware that by not taking up this case it’s probably going to lead to some big problems after the election quote the court’s handling of the important constitutional issue raised by this matter has needlessly created conditions that could lead to serious post-election problems i

reluctantly conclude that there is simply not enough time at this late date to decide the question before the election and in the actual supreme court decision that was written by Alito and co-signed by Gorsuch and Thomas if they allude that they will likely overturn the three-day extension after the election quote it would be highly desirable to issue a ruling on the constitutionality of the state supreme court’s decision before the election that question has national importance and there is a strong likelihood that the state supreme court decision violates the federal constitution now Pennsylvania republicans tried to fast track this case because they knew that hoping they were hoping that justice amy coney Barrett could be that

deciding vote but according to a spokeswoman from u.s supreme court judge justice Barrett uh said that she just they did she didn’t have enough time to fully review the case and therefore they needed to wait to at least after the election the supreme court though Sandra did say that they are allowing for the mail-in ballots that are received after election day to be segregated they will be segregated so that if this case when this case goes up for the supreme court they’ll know which mail in ballots should or should not be counted important story brian yenis thank you, by the way, brian while i have you

there what are democrats saying in uh about that yeah go ahead yeah no good it’s it’s an important uh you know it’s important because democrats here have been arguing that they need that three-day extension because of this once in a century pandemic and also the fact that they have cited the postal service delays we spoke to the lieutenant governor john fetterman who is a democrat who said frankly he was he was that well frankly he said that look i we at this point voters need to drop their mail-in ballots off in person they do not need to go to the postal service he does not trust that they’ll get there in time at this point right sandra brian ennis thank you