Multiple lawsuits over election fraud are preceding through the courts and appeal process. One of the most important is a lawsuit filed in the Supreme Court by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton yesterday against Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin seeking to have their state legislatures appoint electors due to widespread election fraud in those states:
The filing, first reported by Joel Pollak at Breitbart, is under a procedure where the U.S. Supreme Court has original jurisdiction in suits between states. That means the lawsuit does not need to be filed in District Court, then work its way through the normal appeals process.
The lawsuit is in the form of a Motion for Leave to File Bill of Complaint. (The Brief in support of the Motion appears starting at page 50 of the pdf. A more complete pdf. with all filings, including the Motion for Preliminary Injunction and a Temporary Restraining Order is available here starting at pg. 111)
The relief sought is a delay of the December 14 statutory deadline for electors to vote, arguing that the Supreme Court has the power to delay that deadline since “[t]he only date that is mandated under the Constitution … is January 20, 2021. U.S. CONST. amend. XX.” The purpose of the delay would be for state legislatures to consider appointing the electors given the unreliability in the way the elections were handled.
This is in line with some commenters here suggesting that January 20 is the only real Constitutional deadline.
I’m not sufficiently familiar with this procedure to opine right now on whether it is proper procedurally…
You and me both!
…but if it works it puts the election squarely in the hands of the Supreme Court. There is no guarantee that if the issue were put to the legislators in these states that they would select Trump electors in the face of certified vote counts showing Biden the winner.
The suit alleges a variety of different constitutional violations in each state, all relating to the loosening of mail-ballot processing rules. Some of the changes were implemented by state and local election officials using the Chinese coronavirus as a pretext; others pre-date the presidential election and COVID.
Texas argues the impact of the rules’ changes was the same in each of these battleground states, saying election officials “flooded their people with unlawful ballot applications and ballots while ignoring statutory requirements as to how they were received, evaluated and counted.”
The requested remedy is the same, as well: toss out all mail-ballot votes and the presidential election results for all four states, which currently show Joe Biden receiving more votes than President Donald Trump.
To safeguard public legitimacy at this unprecedented moment and restore public trust in the presidential election, this Court should extend the December 14, 2020 deadline for Defendant States’ certification of presidential electors to allow these investigations to be completed.
“Trust in the integrity of our election processes is sacrosanct and binds our citizenry and the States in this Union together,” Paxton said in a press statement. “Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin destroyed that trust and compromised the security and integrity of the 2020 election. The states violated statutes enacted by their duly elected legislatures, thereby violating the Constitution. By ignoring both state and federal law, these states have not only tainted the integrity of their own citizens’ vote, but of Texas and every other state that held lawful elections.”
“Their failure to abide by the rule of law casts a dark shadow of doubt over the outcome of the entire election,” he added. “We now ask that the Supreme Court step in to correct this egregious error.”
My fear is that the very novelty of this lawsuit will work against it. I’m not sure any state has ever filed to alter election results from other states, or that the Supreme Court would grant standing in the lawsuit. But by making it a state suing another state, it makes it a clear Supreme Court case under Article III of the Constitution.
Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge is also supporting the lawsuit:
AG Rutledge Statement on Recent Texas Motion before U.S. Supreme Court pic.twitter.com/QBrLzKe26P
— Leslie Rutledge (@AGRutledge) December 8, 2020
As is Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry.
Indeed, seven states have joined the lawsuit: Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Carolina, and South Dakota. It’s quite possible that more have joined by the time you read this.
With the lawsuit to invalidate Pennsylvania’s certification thrown out, the Texas lawsuit may be the best chance to get the Supreme Court to look at the massive election fraud that occurred in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
Edited to Add: Missouri signs onto the lawsuit.
Tags: 2020 Presidential Race, Alabama, Arkansas, Crime, Elections, Florida, Georgia, Ken Paxton, Kentucky, Leslie Rutledge, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, voting fraud, Wisconsin
The high court was perceived as intervening inappropriately in 2000. There will be a strong desire to not repeat that.
Big possibility the SCOTUS decision will to punt back to the states and force them to do … something … probably something they aren’t doing and don’t want to do, but legally should do.
I have no faith in the US Supreme Court. It is part of the corrupt Federal government, which could less about the American people.
I agree with Howard, the Supreme Court will punt.
The three newest justices were part of the winning team in 2000 so they are familiar with the precedent
All the SCOTUS needs to do is deny the request by Texas to grant the State Legislatures in the four states the authority to select the Electors in the current election because the State Legislatures already have the plenary authority to do so without relief.
Neither state laws nor state constitutions have the authority to supplant the plenary authority granted by Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 of the US Constitution to select Electors if the said State Legislatures believe their duly enacted election laws were not faithfully followed.
They can just do it but they don’t have the courage and are seeking political cover from the SCOTUS.
The PA lawsuit was not thrown out by SCOTUS. Instead, what happened was that the court denied the plaintiffs’ request for an injunction.
Paxton will prevail in this lawsuit. It will get him a pardon for the securities fraud for which he has been indicted. The case before SCOTUS, however, will be laughed at, mocked and not heard by the Supreme Court.
It seems very clear that the defendant States violated their individual Constitution’s requirements for election procedures. How SCOTUS will remedy that remains to be seen, but the case seems to be on solid ground.
Improper? Florida set a precedent. Liberals have always insisted that precedent holds. As such the requested relief should be granted and it goes to the state legislatures to determine electors.
Dems will activate their shock troops – antifa, BLM, and lawyers. Expect countersuits in each state to block legislature action. Lots of threats against Republicans. And violence.
Best case result, from the lawsuit perspective, the SC requires a revote in 90 days in those states. It would never throw them out.
Chances are slim to none for either.
What’s important for everyone not a shill or under the thrall of the power machinations on the left and right (opposite sides of the same coin), is that the Dems would be working from this same playbook if Trump one.
Whoever wins, the goal is always to play one side off the others an and encroach powers or destroy liberty in one area or another. The left wins some key battles to them (and the people lose in other areas), the right wins some key battles to them, and the people lose in other areas.
Don’t be deceived. Divide and conquer, working one neighbor against the other is what gets us into this mess. Winning power for your side or candidate hasn’t worked, but led to more of the same while things get worse.
@Howard writes: “Big possibility the SCOTUS decision will to punt back to the states and force them to do … something … probably something they aren’t doing and don’t want to do, but legally should do.”
Yes. This “punt” as you call it is both appropriate and exactly what Texas is asking for — not that SCOTUS declare Trump the winner in the defendant states, but that SCOTUS order the state legislators to choose the electors because the corrupt election process makes it impossible to determine who won.
Attorney here. I’m incredibly busy with year-end projects so have not had time to read the complaint. I will be shocked if the case is bounced for lack of standing. State AGs are filing on behalf of their respective states and the residents thereof, all of whom have been deprived of their 14th Amendment right to have their vote counted equally by the brazen voter fraud perpetrated in PA, GA, WI, MI, AZ, and NV. To bounce this case for lack of standing is a judicial declaration that the states which ran clean elections have no recourse against the states which stole the presidential election. Not likely. We’re on the precipice of civil war already and I don’t believe the Supreme Court wants to light the spark that ignites it.
This will likely get tossed back to the legislators in the respective states with judicial findings that the election was tainted by fraud. It’s imperative that the Republican party be made to understand that this is an existential crisis for the party. If the Republican legislators in PA, GA, WI, MI, and AZ refuse to submit a Republican slate of electors the Republican party is finished. I am a lifelong Republican voter. I will never vote for a Republican again if the party skates on this one. There are millions of other Republicans who share that view.
The Supreme Court will decline to rule on the suit because the state legislatures already have all the authority needed to determine which slate of electors will cast their states’ votes (and thus the suit is moot”). The legislatures will not agree to toss the results of the mail-in ballots, because the political cost of ignoring the will of the people expressed in those ballots (even if it were proven beyond doubt that some of the mailed ballots were invalid) would be politically suicidal.
It doesn’t appear there is any plausible recourse for this election. The only viable solution for the Republicans is to reform the “rules of the game” to establish firm protections against fraud–the Democrats have always been much better at it, so attempting to “game the system” is always an away game for the Republicans…
Regardless of which way the Supreme Court rules on this, it will the cause of secession talk on whichever side loses.
It may go all the way to a two-state solution, i.e. Kurt Schlichter’s novels, or outright civil war.
We live in interesting times.
Suppose you are on a field of battle with another thousand dudes.
And something happens that needs immediate attention and a swift and strong response.
And the call is made for all to hear.
And three men come forward.
You have a problem.
So you make a gesture to all the others like “WTF are you doing?!!”
And they shrug and avert their gaze from you but nothing else.
That is the problem we have.
The Steal is in full force.
Fraud. Treason. Mortal danger for the Constitutional Republic.
And people shrug and avert their gaze.
We have a problem.
When the vast majority doesn’t want to fight there’s little else that can be done.
Very soon what we are letting die will be sorely missed.
But by then it will be too late.
This is what losing a war is.
Now the enemy owns us.
Because we let them.
I really want the USSC to direct the state legislatures to decide the electors. I would prefer they pick TRump, but if they pick Biden thats better than the current state of affairs. We had a legal question the court said there were questions and directed the States to follow the Constitution. Bonus points for the USSC to direct the States to follow their constitutions and either disregard the non legislative election directions or make them follow the process to enact them.
If we don’t follow the Constitution(s) we ain’t the America I want to be part of….
It really doesn’t matter what the court’s say. We have seen a giant segment of the population decide they want to go the full Hugo Chavez way dressed with with Mao and topped with Stalin. America is dead, we now see the ghouls wearing its skin and parading around lecturing us on the virtues of diversity and social justice.
Worked overseas for 30 years. If you don’t realize what is happening you must be the children of those Jews in Hitler’s Germany who watched the enabling acts and said “this is Germany, Hitler will pass, there is nothing to see or worry about.”
Free showers anyone? Not me, burn it all down first.