Executive summary: the goal of the post-election lawsuits was never to win.
To date, there have been at least 60 post-election lawsuits lost in front of more than 80 judges (of all political persuasions). These cases have been filed and argued by third-tier lawyers and dismissed, primarily because of standing and jurisdictional reasons. On the rare occasions when the cases were heard “on the merits,” the judges have either determined that there were simply no merits to be found or, such as in Guiliani’s case, the lawyers have admitted “this is not a fraud case.” Is this really just extraordinarily bad lawyering (and if so, why wouldn’t you have hired better ones as time passed)?
The answer is no, and the answer only became completely apparent last week. Representative Louie Gohmert filed suit in Federal Court in an effort, among other things, to compel Vice President Pence to act completely contrary to constitutional mandates in his upcoming handling of the verification of electoral college votes.
Gohmert’s case was dismissed due to lack of standing and jurisdiction. What makes this case instructive is the fact that Gohmert was previously the Chief Justice on Texas's 12th Court of Appeals. In that capacity, he heard and ruled on standing and jurisdiction questions on an almost daily basis. Knowing what constitutes standing and jurisdiction is second nature to a justice in that position. And yet he managed to screw up his own case. Or did he?
One constant throughout all of the post-election litigation is that supposedly rookie mistakes about standing and jurisdiction have abounded. All of these “mistakes” have allowed additional cases to be filed and, because cases were ongoing, have perpetuated the opportunity to fundraise within the Republican party because “we continue to fight.” At the same time, the one million dollar offer by the Texas Attorney General for proof of fraud remains unclaimed.
If you can’t write a check right now, they accept Visa and MasterCard. [Written January 2, 2021]
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