Bloomberg reports:

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf and other state officials assailed a Pittsburgh judge for issuing what they described as an unprecedented order halting additional steps in the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s election victory.

“Since the birth of our nation nearly 250 years ago, no court has ever issued an order purporting to interfere with a state’s ascertainment of its presidential electors — until today,” state officials said in an appeal filed shortly after Commonwealth Court Judge Patricia McCullough’s Wednesday ruling in a lawsuit brought by Pennsylvania Republicans. “There is no conceivable justification for the lower court’s issuance of such an order in this case.”

It’s unclear exactly what further steps in the process can be delayed, but the plaintiffs suggested there were several including the assembly of electors. The Electoral College vote doesn’t take place until Dec. 14.

Wolf and Secretary of the Commonwealth Kathy Boockvar, both Democrats, asked the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to lift the order by McCullough, a Republican, and dismiss the underlying suit, which claimed a state law passed to expand use of mail-in voting was illegal. [Continue reading…]