Politico reports:

A federal appeals court panel forcefully rejected the Trump campaign’s effort to throw out millions of Pennsylvania ballots, declaring its allegations of misconduct meritless and its suggested remedies as “breathtaking” and undercut by a lack of evidence.

“Voters, not lawyers, choose the President. Ballots, not briefs, decide elections,” Judge Stephanos Bibas — an appointee of President Donald Trump — wrote for the three-judge 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals panel composed entirely of GOP appointees. Bibas’ opinion, delivered just after noon Friday, rejected the campaign’s appeal of a district court ruling that similarly shredded the suit.

Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani has previously indicated he intends to bring this suit to the Supreme Court. And campaign attorney Jenna Ellis confirmed this is their intention in a Twitter post Friday.

“The activist judicial machinery in Pennsylvania continues to cover up the allegations of massive fraud,” Ellis said, in a perplexing reference to the three Republican-appointed judges. “We are very thankful to have had the opportunity to present proof and the facts to the PA state legislature.”

Still, the unceremonious, unanimous rejection of the case by a panel of GOP appointees suggests the case may get a chilly reception from the Supreme Court, since justices often look to dissenting opinions from their ideological peers as fodder for interest at the high court.

Much of the appeals court panel’s ruling read like a rebuke of Giuliani for the Trump campaign’s legal tactics. Bibas repeatedly emphasized that Giuliani and the campaign never actually alleged voter fraud in this suit, despite their heated public rhetoric. [Continue reading…]