HARRISBURG, Pa. — Pennsylvania’s highest court ruled Wednesday that Republican state lawmakers can no longer try to force a subpoena for a wide range of election materials they released in 2021 in a quest inspired by Baseless allegations of fraud by former President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
The court, in a brief order, rejected three appeals in the case, vacated a lower court order and said the subpoena became “unenforceable” at the end of the court’s two-year session. state legislature in 2022.
A Republican-controlled Senate committee issued a subpoena as part of what they called a “forensic investigation” into the 2020 presidential election, as Trump and his allies exerted pressure in Battleground states where Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden to investigate ballots, voting machines and voters register for evidence to support their baseless claims about election fraud.
The subpoena, issued to the Pennsylvania state elections office, has remained pending for more than two years amid several legal challenges. Senate Republicans have never released a public report stemming from their investigation or subpoena, and they did not immediately indicate Wednesday whether they would consider issuing another subpoena.
The ruling is effectively a victory for the state attorney general’s office, Senate Democrats and several constituent groups, who have gone to court to try to block the subpoena.
“It took a ton of work and a lot of hustle, and the case ended with a whimper,” said Witold J. Walczak, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, which represented the groups of voters. “But fortunately, in our opinion, no damage was caused.”
The Democrats had argued that the subpoena constituted an abuse of legislative power, served no legitimate legislative purpose, and arose from Trump’s efforts to undermine confidence in the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Voter groups and the attorney general’s office argued that some of the detailed election records they sought — such as the driver’s license numbers of 9 million registered voters — could not be released to the public under privacy laws. The state also argued that information sought by Republicans about election systems was not disclosed to the public by federal law.
High Court order is set aside last year’s decision by the lower Commonwealth Court, which said it would leave it to the Senate to enforce its own assignment under state contempt laws. All parties appealed aspects of the decision, while the ACLU viewed the lower court’s decision as dangerous because of the implications on voter privacy.
THE idea of election audits or investigations was propelled by Trump’s most ardent supporters in battleground states, including Pennsylvania, where Trump lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden.
Pennsylvania Republicans subsequently spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on legal fees and election investigative services that have yet to release a public report on their findings.
An Associated Press investigation into Potential cases of voter fraud in Pennsylvania and the five other battleground states where Trump challenged his loss to Biden in 2020 found a tiny number of cases.
Election officials in 11 of the state’s 67 counties identified a total of 26 possible cases of electoral fraud, which represents 0.03% of Biden’s margin of victory. He beat Trump in Pennsylvania by more than 80,000 votes, according to the state’s certified results.
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