The Daily Fuckup

On Feb. 22, 2021, the Supreme Court denied the petition in Donald J. Trump, et al. v. Joseph R. Biden, et al., the Wisconsin election case docketed as No. 20-882. The docket entry is brief: “Petition DENIED.” It gives no explanation and does not resolve the fraud claims raised in the post-election litigation. A certiorari denial is not a ruling on the merits. ([supremecourt.gov](https://www.supremecourt.gov/docket/docketfiles/html/public/20-882.html?utm_source=openai))

The court also denied review that day in Republican Party of Pennsylvania v. Degraffenreid, No. 20-542. That docket shows the petition was filed in October 2020, a motion to expedite was denied later that month, and the petition itself was denied on Feb. 22, 2021. The disposition was a cert denial, not a substantive decision on the underlying election dispute. ([supremecourt.gov](https://www.supremecourt.gov/docket/docketfiles/html/public/20-542.html?utm_source=openai))

Those denials mattered because they ended the bid for Supreme Court review in those cases. They did not amount to a blanket endorsement of the lower courts’ reasoning, and they did not create a Supreme Court ruling on the 2020 election itself. They were refusals to hear the cases. ([supremecourt.gov](https://www.supremecourt.gov/docket/docketfiles/html/public/20-882.html?utm_source=openai))