US appeals court rejects Trump campaign's Pennsylvania lawsuit

In a fresh setback to US President Donald Trump's efforts to reverse the presidential election result in Pennsylvania, a federal appeals court has dismissed a lawsuit filed by his team, observing that "voters, not lawyers choose the president". The three-judge panel of the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday upheld a previous ruling that dismissed the Trump campaign's request for an injunction in the case in Pennsylvania to challenge the election results and slammed the lawsuit.

"Free, fair elections are the lifeblood of our democracy," said Judge Stephanos Bibas in his order, which comes four says after Pennsylvania certified Trump's Democratic rival Joe Biden as the winner in the state.

"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," said Bibas, who was appointed by Trump.

"The campaign cannot win this lawsuit," he said.

Bibas authored the order along with two other judges on the bench, Chief Circuit Judge Brooks Smith and Judge Michael Chagares, who were appointed by former Republican president George W Bush. Trump has refused to concede the November 3 election to Biden and has filed multiple lawsuits challenging the poll results in several states.

Former vice president Biden was declared the winner of the US presidential election on November 7 after flipping Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin to the Democrats' column. Biden has 306 electoral votes to Trump's 232 votes. To win the race to the White House, the successful candidate should have at least 270 electoral votes out of the 538-member Electoral College. The president-elect leads by more than 80,000 votes in Pennsylvania, a battleground state that has 20 electoral college seats. Trump's lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis said they will now appeal to the Supreme Court.

"The activist judicial machinery in Pennsylvania continues to cover up the allegations of massive fraud. We are very thankful to have had the opportunity to present proof and the facts to the PA state legislature. On to SCOTUS!" they said.

According to the local Philadelphia Inquirer, "Bibas pointed out that despite the campaign's speculative claims and fiery rhetoric, it never alleged - let alone offered any evidence to suggest - that any vote had been improperly counted or cast." "Voters, not lawyers, choose the president. Ballots, not briefs, decide elections. ...alchemy cannot transmute lead into gold," Bibas wrote in his order.

The New York Times said many courts have used scathing language in tossing out a relentless barrage of lawsuits filed by the Trump campaign and its supporters since Election Day, but even so, the Third Circuit's ruling was particularly blunt. The court accused the Trump campaign of engaging in "repetitive litigation" and pointed out that the public interest strongly favoured "counting every lawful voter's vote, and not disenfranchising millions of Pennsylvania voters who voted by mail," the daily said. Earlier in the day, Trump reiterated that he was won the elections and unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud.

"Biden can only enter the White House as President if he can prove that his ridiculous "80,000,000 votes" were not fraudulently or illegally obtained. When you see what happened in Detroit, Atlanta, Philadelphia & Milwaukee, massive voter fraud, he's got a big unsolvable problem!" Trump tweeted.

"Big Tech and the Fake News Media have partnered to Suppress. Freedom of the Press is gone, a thing of the past. That's why they refuse to report the real facts and figures of the 2020 Election or even, where's Hunter!" he said in another tweet. The Electoral College is scheduled to meet on December 14 and is expected to formally declare the 78-year-old Biden as the 46th US President.

Under the US electoral system, voters do not directly choose the president. Instead, they vote for 538 officials, who are allocated to American states based on their population size. Earlier this week, Trump allowed the official start of Biden's transition to power without conceding defeat. Biden is due to be sworn in as president on January 20. 

(Image Credits: AP)