Supreme Court rejects Trump election challenge cases

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a handful of cases related to the 2020 election, including disputes from Pennsylvania that had deeply divided the justices just before the election.

The cases the justices rejected involved election challenges filed by former President Donald Trump and his allies in five states President Joe Biden won: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Other than two Pennsylvania disputes, the justices' decision not to hear the cases was unsurprising but ends months of legal wrangling.

The court had previously taken no action in those cases and in January had turned away pleas that the cases be fast-tracked, again suggesting the justices were not interested in hearing them.

Some of the justices, however, had strong feelings about the court's decision not to hear two cases from Pennsylvania that had been particularly contentious in the battleground state.

The cases involved an appeal of a Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision requiring election officials to receive and count mailed-in ballots that arrived up to three days after the election. Three of the nine justices said they would have heard the case, which would not have affected the election's outcome.

Justice Clarence Thomas called the cases an "ideal opportunity" to address an important question whether state lawmakers or state courts get the last word about the manner in which federal elections are carried out. And he called it "befuddling" and "inexplicable" that his colleagues were declining to weigh in.

Pennsylvania officials had argued that the case was moot because the state's election results had already been certified. Republicans argued the justices should take the case to provide guidance for future elections. In addition to Thomas, two other justices - Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch - agreed.

Those three justices and Justice Brett Kavanaugh had been the four justices who previously would have put the ballot deadline extension on hold.