Donald Trump faces tough road in getting Supreme Court to intervene

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly said theres one place he wants to determine the outcome of the presidential election the US Supreme Court But he may have a difficult time ever getting thereOver the last two days Trump has leaned in to the idea that the high court should get involved in the election as it did in 2000 Then the court effectively settled the contested election for President George W Bush in a 54 decision that split the courts liberals and conservativesToday six members of the court are conservatives including three nominated by Trump But the outcome of this years election seemed to be shaping up very differently from 2000 when Floridas electoral votes delivered the presidency to George W BushThen Bush led in Florida and went to court to stop a recount Trump for his part has suggested a strategy that would focus on multiple states where the winning margins appear to be slim But he might have to persuade the Supreme Court to set aside votes in two or more states to prevent Joe Biden from becoming presidentChief Justice John Roberts for his part is not likely to want the election to come down to himself and his colleagues Roberts who was not on the court for Bush v Gore in 2000 but was a lawyer for Bush has often tried to distance the court from the political branches of government and the politics he thinks could hurt the courts reputationIts also not clear what legal issues might cause the justices to step in Trump has made repeated unsubstantiated claims of election fraud Lawsuits filed by his campaign so far have been smallscale efforts unlikely to affect many votes and some already have been dismissedStill Trump has focused on the high court In the early morning hours following Election Day he said ldquoWell be going to the US Supreme Court we want all voting to stoprdquoAnd on Thursday as Biden inched closer to the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the White House Trump again told Americans ldquoIts going to end up perhaps at the highest court in the land well seerdquo On Twitter too he urged ldquoUS Supreme Court should deciderdquoThere is currently one election case at the Supreme Court and it involves a Republican appeal to exclude ballots that arrived after Election Day in the battleground state of Pennsylvania But whether or not those ballots ultimately are counted seems unlikely to affect who gets the states electoral votesBiden opened a narrow lead over Trump on Friday and any additional mailin votes probably would help Biden not the presidentStill Trumps campaign is currently trying to intervene in the case an appeal of a decision by Pennsylvanias highest court to allow three extra days for the receipt and counting of mailed ballots Because the case is ongoing the states top election official has directed that the small number of ballots that arrived in that window before 5 pm on Friday be separated but countedRepublicans on Friday asked for a high court order ensuring the ballots are separated and Justice Samuel Alito acting on his own agreed saying he was motivated in part by the Republicans assertion that they cant be sure elections officials are complying with guidanceBeyond the Pennsylvania case if Trump wanted to use a lawsuit to challenge the election outcome in a state hed need to begin by bringing a case in a lower courtSo far Trumps campaign and Republicans have mounted legal challenges in several states but most are smallscale lawsuits that do not appear to affect many votes On Thursday the Trump campaign won an appellate ruling to get party and campaign observers closer to election workers who are processing mailin ballots in Philadelphia But Judges in Georgia and Michigan quickly dismissed two other campaign lawsuits ThursdayTrump and his campaign have promised even more legal action making unsubstantiated allegations of election fraudBidens campaign meanwhile has called the existing lawsuits meritless more political strategy than legalldquoI want to emphasise that for their purposes these lawsuits dont have to have merit Thats not the purposeIt is to create an opportunity for them to message falsely about whats taking place in the electoral processrdquo lawyer Bob Bauer said on Thursday accusing the Trump campaign of ldquocontinually alleging irregularities failures of the system and fraud without any basisrdquoOn the other side Trumps campaign manager Bill Stepien in a call with reporters Thursday morning said that ldquoevery night the president goes to bed with a leadrdquo and every night new votes ldquoare mysteriously found in a sackrdquoIts common in presidential elections to have vote counting continue after Election Day however And while most states make Election Day the deadline to receive mailedin ballots 22 states 10 of which backed Trump in the 2016 election have a postElection Day deadlineKeep scrolling to read more newsCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest newsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever