US Judge Dismisses Lawmaker Lawsuit Against Pence Over Electoral Count wtma.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from wtma.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Senator Ted Cruz on Saturday said he will spearhead a drive by nearly a dozen Republican senators to challenge President-elect Joe Biden’s victory when Electoral College results are tallied in Congress on Jan. 6 – a largely symbolic move that has virtually no chance of preventing Biden from taking office.
Cruz’s effort is in defiance of Senate Republican leaders, who have argued that the Senate’s role in certifying the election is largely ceremonial and had been looking to avoid an extended debate on the floor about the outcome.
In a statement, Cruz, the U.S. senator from Texas, and the other 10 senators said they intend to vote to reject electors from states that have been at the center of President Donald Trump’s unproven assertions of election fraud. They said Congress should immediately appoint a commission to conduct an emergency 10-day audit of election results in those states.
Election lawsuit against Pence dismissed Judge Jeremy D. Kernodle of the Eastern District of Texas ruled that Republican lawmakers, lacked proper standing to sue Vice-President
A federal judge on Friday dismissed a lawsuit led by President Trump’s allies in Congress that aimed to pressure Vice-President Mike Pence to overturn the results of the election, dealing a blow to lawmakers’ last-ditch effort to challenge President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr’s victory.
Judge Jeremy D. Kernodle of the Eastern District of Texas ruled that Republican lawmakers, led by Representative Louie Gohmert of Texas, lacked the proper standing to sue Pence in the matter. The lawsuit challenged the more than century-old law that governs the Electoral College process, in an attempt to expand an otherwise ceremonial role into one with the power to reject electoral votes that were cast for Biden.
Constitutional Law Prof Blog
The ruling in the frivolous case was not unexpected.
The case arose when Gohmert and self-appointed Trump electors from Arizona sued VP Pence, arguing that the Electoral Count Act violates the Electors Clause and the Twelfth Amendment, and that Pence has authority to determine which slate of electors to accept when he presides over the congressional count of electoral votes on January 6. The, er, novel argument turns on the plaintiffs , um, creative reading of the Electors Clause, the Twelfth Amendment, and the Electoral Count Act.
Start with the Electors Clause. It says that [e]ach State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors . . . .
Judge dismisses lawsuit seeking to overturn Joe Biden s election win stuff.co.nz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from stuff.co.nz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.