On the first day of class in Civil Procedure in the first day of law school, my professor said: “None of this will make sense for about six weeks. Then one day you’ll see how it all fits together.” And he was right.
Real lawsuits are not like The People’s Court where you can just come in and say “here’s who I am and here’s what I want.” The rules are complex, and for good reason. The Courts, federal courts in particular, are designed to make sure that the right people bring the case (standing), that they are filing the case in the right place (jurisdiction), and that what they are asking for is appropriate (stating a claim upon which relief can be granted). The process is a deliberate one, designed to make sure that everybody’s time isn’t wasted. In some areas of the law, such as fraud, you must do much more than simply make general allegations. You must specifically lay out the who, what, when and where.
Because the process is so deliberate (and time consuming), attorneys who want relatively quick action from the courts get the process moving immediately. This is particularly true in election challenges. The sooner you can prove you are the proper parties to the action and that you are in the right court, the sooner issues can finally be determined.
What all of this means is that when you hear people, at this late date, spouting fraud or conspiracy theories that they claim will ultimately prevail in court, know that they are on a legal fool’s errand. As we approach Thanksgiving, stick a fork in it. It’s done.[ Written November 24, 2020]
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