Flyover country strikes back!
Posted on 12/10/2020 8:14:00 AM PST by Red Badger
Indiana has signed on to an amicus brief filed in support of the Texas petition to the Supreme Court to sue Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin for their conduct in the 2020 presidential election.
The brief says the actions of the four states “implicate a uniquely important national interest” because “the impact of the votes cast in each state is affected by the votes cast for the various candidates in other states."
Indiana joins 16 other states on the brief: Missouri, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and West Virginia.
The brief cites Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution, known as the Electors Clause, saying it “carefully separates powers among state actors” and gives state legislatures, not governors, state agencies or county officials, the power to choose the electors who make up the Electoral College.
The brief states that Indiana and the other states “have a strong interest in ensuring that the votes of their own citizens are not diluted by the unconstitutional administration of elections in other states” and says when “non-legislative actors” in other states “encroach on the authority” of state legislators to choose electors, “they threaten the liberty, not just of their own citizens, but of every citizen of the United States who casts a lawful ballot in that election…”
“Every voter in a federal election has a right under the Constitution to have his vote fairly counted, without its being distorted by fraudulently cast votes,” the brief asserts, citing the 1974 case Anderson v. United States.
It goes on to quote from the 2017 Department of Justice manual on the federal prosecution of election offenses, saying: “Our constitutional system of representative government only works when the worth of honest ballots is not diluted by invalid ballots procured by corruption.”
“When the election process is corrupted, democracy is jeopardized,” the states assert in the brief.
The news Indiana signed on to the brief follows statements issued by both the outgoing attorney general, Curtis Hill, and the incoming attorney general, former Secretary of State Todd Rokita.
Hill told The Center Square today he made the decision for Indiana to sign on to the brief early Wednesday afternoon.
“We have to preserve the integrity of the electoral process,” he said, adding that it is “imperative” that the “chicanery” in the elections process this year is “filtered out.”
Rokita said in a statement Wednesday that Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin “conducted the elections with a disregard to the Constitution."
“Only the U.S. Supreme Court can settle this real controversy among the states,” he said. “Only by taking up this case and allowing a full and fair hearing of the facts will the Supreme Court help restore the confidence of the American people in our elections.”
The amicus brief refers to the Texas petition to the Supreme Court this week and its detailed account of the actions taken by judges and elections officials in the four states -- including secretaries of state, state and county boards of election and county and city clerks -- that violated state laws that govern the conduct of an election and the processing of ballots.
“It is no accident that the Constitution allocates such authority to state Legislatures, rather than executive officers such as Secretaries of State, or judicial officers such as state Supreme Courts,” the brief asserts. “The Constitutional Convention’s delegates frequently recognized that the Legislature is the branch most responsive to the People and most democratically accountable.”
The brief focuses on the processing of absentee ballots, saying for years, experts have warned that absentee ballots are more prone to fraud and emphasized the importance of safeguards to prevent this fraud. It asserts that the four states nevertheless abolished important safeguards in doing so, violated state laws and the Constitution.
The brief details the specific ways in which anti-fraud safeguards were ignored and state laws violated, including abolishing signature requirements; applying different standards in different places in the state in the acceptance or denial of ballots; barring bipartisan observers from meaningfully observing the tabulation of absentee ballots and unlawfully extending the date by which absentee ballots must be received at an elections office.
Hill emphasized the importance of anti-fraud measures to safeguard absentee ballots, saying certain precautions must be taken with absentee ballots.
“The more removed you get from an Election Day live vote, the more opportunity for fraud we have,” he said.
He said the involvement by the U.S. Supreme Court is necessary to "provide a level of confidence to the American people that the process is working the way it's supposed to work."
Flyover country strikes back!
The states being sued should be in yellow................
These states are starting to look like the early days of the states and territories choosing sides in the (first) Civil War.
We’ll probably see a lot of that from now on. Those Deplorables just won’t go away. (Yay!).
I read yesterday that Arizona joined the lawsuit.
Arizona should also be blue. Or maybe green since another poster suggested putting the defendant states in yellow. 😜
I can't find a source for that.
John Roberts is probably burning the midnight oil trying to figure out how he can make this election a tax or something.
Praying for the five conservative justices, for the Lord to give them the spirit of courage and fortitude. They might be the only ones left at this point who can save our Republic.
...........AND, if you (the Supreme Court) cannot deal with this most momentous of all matters except the Civil War and the Revolutionary War then millions will come to believe there is no longer any use for a Union of States.
Arguably, if the Supreme Court ignores this case on standing or some other silly assed technicality they have Balkanized America, permanently.
This should be a slam-dunk from the precedent they set in Bush V. Gore in 2000....................
If SCOTUS refuses to hear this case then they destroy themselves. What good is a 'supreme' court that refuses to address the biggest constitutional issue in maybe a century (Bush V Gore is the only recent competition but this is States vs States)? Why should we listen them on anything? States can and maybe will just ignore them in the future.
“””Where is Kentucky?”””
Unfortunately, the Republican State of Kentucky took upon themselves to elect a Democrat Attorney General.
As I understand the legal process only State Attorney Generals can file amici briefs.
Kentucky, Iowa, Wyoming, and Idaho should join this.
Wish there was a way for Upstate NY to do this, along with any parts of Downstate willing to sign on....
Most of NYS’s counties are MAGA red.
Heart-Land of America!
“””Kentucky, Iowa, Wyoming, and Idaho should join this.”””
Don’t forget Alaska.
Yeah, if there was to be a real split the coasts would starve in short order.
Yes, Alaska should be on the list as well.
I think if all those join then the list would be ad 25 states. Psychologically, getting to 26 would be good optics.
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