The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania has handed Republicans a major election victory. 

Fox News reports that the ruling from the court was released on Friday.

The outlet reports that it was "a forcefully-worded opinion" written by Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Kevin Dougherty. Apparently, Dougherty was not happy with the lower court ruling that his court was asked to review.

Before we get to Dougherty's opinion, we will quickly look at the background of this case.

Background

Republicans and Democrats are fighting hard to win the important swing state of Pennsylvania, and some of these battles are taking place in the state's courts.

One of these battles that began in the state's Commonwealth Court had to do with a requirement that mail-in voters handwrite the correct date on the ballots.

CNN explains:

Voters are instructed to write the date on which they filled out the ballot. However, the requirement has led to the rejection of thousands of ballots in past elections, as voters sometimes put their birthdate or other incorrect dates, or forget to date the ballot envelope altogether.

The Democrats challenged the requirement, and, in an opinion that surprised many, the Commonwealth Court agreed with the Democrats.

This decision was then upheld by an appellate court, before it finally made it to the state's supreme court.

Overturned

As mentioned at the outset, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has overturned the Commonwealth Court's ruling. Justice Dougherty, according to Fox, "admonished" the court in the process.

He wrote:

"This Court will neither impose nor countenance substantial alterations to existing laws and procedures during the pendency of an ongoing election." We said those carefully chosen words only weeks ago. Yet they apparently were not heard in the Commonwealth Court, the very court where the bulk of election litigation unfolds.

This very fact has caused some to ask whether the Commonwealth Court simply disregarded the earlier ruling on purpose in order to try to help Democrats out in the 2024 presidential election. We'll leave that for you to decide.

Dougherty, in his opinion, continued:

Today’s order, which I join, rights the ship. And it sends a loud message to all courts in this Commonwealth: in declaring we would not countenance substantial alterations to existing laws and procedures during the pendency of an ongoing election, we said what we meant and meant what we said.

Former President Donald Trump and Republicans are celebrating this as a victory for all those who value the integrity of our elections.