Trump’s legal team publicly says the safe harbor deadline is meaningless and they’ll simply disregard it. Set by a 140-year-old statute, the date isn’t enshrined in the Constitution, they say. But the campaign’s legal filings tell another story, as Trump’s lawyers pressed courts for urgent action ahead of the deadline midnight on Tuesday and warned of irreparable consequences if they don’t.

The last time a presidential election was resolved at the Supreme Court, the safe harbor deadline proved pivotal. And several legal actions seem to be hurtling toward a potential resolution on Tuesday — including a Pennsylvania dispute where Justice Samuel Alito initially asked for responses by Wednesday but decided to expedite further to Tuesday amid speculation about the safe harbor deadline…

Trump keeps vowing that he intends to take his legal battle to the Supreme Court, but with the key date arriving Tuesday he has yet to present to the justices a series of cases he insists could swing enough electoral votes to hand him the election. At the moment, though, the justices have before them only a couple of election challenges stemming from Pennsylvania, with mere suggestions that cases from other states will make their way to the high court.

In the meantime, Trump’s allies have increasingly acknowledged their losing legal hand.