Free Republic

The Republican National Committee was dealt a blow by a unanimous decision of the Third Circuit Appeals Court in the RNC's effort to discard undated and misdated ballots in Pennsylvania. The three-judge panel said in the 55-page ruling that the affected ballots needed to be counted and failing to do so was unconstitutional. Pennsylvania voters are required to write the date on the envelope for their mail-in ballots. "The date requirement imposes a burden on Pennsylvanians' constitutional right to vote," the court ruling reads. "And it culminates in county election boards discarding thousands of ballots each time an election is...

The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the argument that refusing to wear face masks at school board meetings during the COVID-19 outbreak constitutes protected speech under the First Amendment. The court ruled on cases involving individuals who claimed retaliation by school boards for not wearing masks at public meetings. The court emphasized that disobeying a masking requirement does not fall under protected speech, comparing it to other forms of non-compliance with the law. The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled, “A question shadowing suits such as these is whether there is a First Amendment right to refuse to wear...

WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court on Tuesday removed a hurdle to the construction of a natural-gas pipeline through Pennsylvania and New Jersey, ruling the pipeline developer could invoke the power of the federal government to take state property needed for the project. The court, in a 5-4 opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts, rejected New Jersey’s challenge to the actions of the PennEast Pipeline Co., a joint venture of several energy companies that aims to build a 116-mile interstate pipeline. Joining the chief justice were two fellow conservatives, Justices Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh, and two liberals, Justices Stephen Breyer and Sonia...

The president's campaign will continue pushing their legal fight toward the Supreme Court The Trump 2020 campaign's legal team suffered another blow in court on Friday, as a federal appeals court in Philadelphia rejected the attorneys' effort to contest the results of the presidential election in Pennsylvania. Judge Stephanos Bibas wrote on behalf of the three-judge panel that reviewed the appeal, "Free, fair elections are the lifeblood of our democracy. Charges of unfairness are serious. But calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here." Trump's attorneys have vowed...

Free, fair elections are the lifeblood of our democracy. Charges of unfairness are serious. But calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here. The Trump Presidential Campaign asserts that Pennsylvania’s 2020 election was unfair. But as lawyer Rudolph Giuliani stressed, the Campaign “doesn’t plead fraud. . . . [T]his is not a fraud case.” Instead, it objects that Pennsylvania’s Secretary of State and some counties restricted poll watchers and let voters fix technical defects in their mail-in ballots. It offers nothing more. This case is not about whether...