Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. v. Secretary of Pennsylvania

President Joseph Biden won the 2020 Pennsylvania presidential election by approximately 81,000 votes. A week after the November 2020 election, after unsuccessfully challenging the election results in state court, the Donald J. Trump for President campaign (the campaign) (plaintiff) sued the secretary of Pennsylvania (defendant) in federal court, arguing that the election was unfair, that it violated the Equal Protection Clause, and that the election results should be invalidated. The campaign alleged that the election was unfair because (1) poll watchers were required to stand up to 25 feet away from vote counters, (2) Democratic-heavy counties allowed voters to correct and resubmit defective mail-in ballots, and (3) 1.5 million mail-in votes from Democratic counties were allegedly improperly counted. The campaign did not submit any evidence to support its claims, did not allege that the election was fraudulent, and did not allege that the Trump and Biden campaigns were treated differently. Five days before the November 23 election-certification deadline, the campaign sought leave to submit a second amended complaint that contained substantially the same allegations as the original complaint and the first amended complaint. The district court denied leave and denied the campaign’s request for an injunction invalidating the election results. The campaign appealed.