Luzerne County seeks Barrett recusal in Pennsylvania mail-in ballot dispute
Lawyers representing Luzerne County have filed a motion in the United States Supreme Court asking newly minted Justice Amy Coney Barrett to recuse herself in a dispute over the mail-in ballot deadline in Pennsylvania.
“I was asked by the county and the insurance company to defend Luzerne County in this litigation. Our position is contained in the motion filed today,” said Larry Moran, of the Pittston-based law firm Joyce, Carmody and Moran.
Pennsylvania Republicans are trying to get the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling that extended the mail-in ballot deadline from the Nov. 3 Election Day to Nov 6.
The court has indicated that before Barrett’s confirmation on Monday it was split 4-4, meaning she could be the deciding vote that eliminates the mail-in ballot extension.
Moran, who organized and hosted a private fundraiser for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden in Exeter last October, declined further comment, but said he would likely answer more questions at Tuesday night’s county council meeting.
Court filings list the Luzerne County Board of Elections as the party filing the recusal motion.
“This recusal is compelled since Justice Barrett’s ‘impartiality might reasonably be questioned’ ... given the circumstances of her nomination and confirmation,” attorneys for the Bureau of Elections wrote.
Attorney Joe Cosgrove, a former Luzerne County and Commonwealth Court judge who has experience in U.S. Supreme Court litigation, is also listed as an attorney on the recusal motion.
He deferred comment to Moran.
News of the recusal motion caught some members of the Luzerne County Board of Elections off guard.
Peter Ouellete, vice chairman of the election board, says no one on the election board or at the election bureau knows anything about the Barrett recusal request.
He said election board member Joyce Dombroski-Gebhardt learned of it when she got a call from county Republican Party Chairman Justin Behrens.
Efforts to reach county Manager David Pedri were not immediately successful.
Democrats have blasted President Donald Trump and the GOP-controlled U.S. Senate for pushing through Barrett’s Supreme Court nomination so close to an election, especially since the Senate blocked one of President Barack Obama’s selections months before the 2016 election.
Barrett replaced liberal icon, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, shifting the ideological makeup of the high court.