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GEORGIA: Court Tosses GOP Lawsuit Demanding Signature Verification For January 5 Runoff: As usual, district court found the complainants lacked standing.
National File ^ | 12/22/2020 | Frank Salvato

Posted on 12/22/2020 9:30:05 AM PST by SeekAndFind

A lawsuit filed by Republicans seeking stronger, more uniform signature matching for the January 5, 2021, US Senate run-off elections has been dismissed by a District Court of Appeals court in Georgia. The district court found the complainants lacked standing. This prompted an appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

The Georgia Republican Party was joined by US Sens. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA), and David Perdue (R-GA), in a lawsuit against Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. The suit claimed that signature matching for mail-in ballots, as executed in the November 3, 2020, General Election was “unconstitutional, arbitrary, and inconsistent.”

The three-judge panel – consisting of Clinton nominee Charles Wilson, Obama nominee Beverly Martin, and Trump nominee Robert Luck, ruled Sunday that the plaintiffs did not adequately allege an injury that can be addressed to establish standing.

“Like in Jacobson, the campaigns sued the Secretary of State,” the panel wrote in its dismissal. “They alleged that the Secretary is the state’s chief election officer, that he has the authority and responsibility to manage Georgia’s electoral system, and that he, along with the election board members, has the duty to promulgate rules and regulations to obtain uniformity in the practices of election officials and to ensure a fair, legal, and orderly conduction of elections.”

“Jacobson” refers to Jacobson v. Florida Secretary of State, a precedent-setting case in the matter.

“But, just as in Jacobson, the absentee ballot statute puts the duty to ‘compare the signature’ and accept or reject a ballot on the ‘registrar or clerk’ – not the secretary of state.”

The judges explained that the motion for injunction before them asked them to do what they already stated they couldn’t do in the previous case, “order a nonparty county official to do something contrary to state law.”

The question that begs to be asked is this. Did the Georgia GOP and lawyers for Loeffler and Purdue do their due diligence in seeking the correct relief from the right litigant?

Judging from the language of the dismissal this appears to be a valid question.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Georgia
KEYWORDS: georgia; runoff; senate; signature; standing
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To: billyboy15

If the article is correct, they already joined the suit.


41 posted on 12/22/2020 11:03:05 AM PST by ConjunctionJunction (President-Elect Conjunction Junction)
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To: SeekAndFind

These feckless, corrupt judges are exactly why vigilante justice comes about. We obviously aren’t going to get any justice from these judges, the FBI or DOJ.


42 posted on 12/22/2020 11:05:42 AM PST by falcon99 (qu)
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To: Starboard

Amazing, isn’t it, that the courts somehow always seem to find “standing”and “constitutionality” on such nefarious issues as illegal immigration, gay marriage and Obamacare?


43 posted on 12/22/2020 11:13:16 AM PST by daler
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To: TigerClaws

catch-22 court system

gross iniquity abounds


44 posted on 12/22/2020 11:23:06 AM PST by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not Averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: SeekAndFind

It’s over!

We have ceased to be a country of laws!

We have now crossed over to being a country of cheaters and scammers!

Courts of Law are no longer about upholding law!

Courts of Law are about upholding the powerful!

Power is no longer derived from We The People, but from They The Ruling Class!

This will end ugly for one side or the other!

History tells us that!


45 posted on 12/22/2020 11:27:32 AM PST by LibFreeUSA ( )
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To: SeekAndFind

What is to stop anyone from making, uh, I dunno, 1,000 copies of ballots and then going through the white pages and filling out a few ballots on behalf of other people in Georgia and getting some “official” envelopes printed and putting all of that into the drop boxes?


46 posted on 12/22/2020 11:30:21 AM PST by a real Sheila (WuFlu be gone!)
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To: LibFreeUSA

Who will light the fuse? the cowards, the go along to get along, the trurn coats, the rhinos, the friends who are now the enemy have to know that they are the first to be reckoned with dont they?


47 posted on 12/22/2020 11:40:57 AM PST by ronnie raygun ( Massive mistakes are made by arrogant fools; massive evils are committed by evil people.")
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Comment #48 Removed by Moderator

Comment #49 Removed by Moderator

To: SeekAndFind

SMH


50 posted on 12/22/2020 11:55:53 AM PST by Pajamajan ( PRAY FOR OUR NATION. I will never be a peaceful slave in a new Socialist America.)
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To: RoseofTexas

And Biden will remove Mrs. McConnell from the Cabinet, but Mitch sees unmoved by that.


51 posted on 12/22/2020 12:09:07 PM PST by Theodore R. ( )
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To: SeekAndFind
A lawsuit filed by Republicans seeking stronger, more uniform signature matching for the January 5, 2021, US Senate run-off elections has been dismissed by a District Court of Appeals court in Georgia. The district court found the complainants lacked standing. This prompted an appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

The Georgia Republican Party was joined by US Sens. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA), and David Perdue (R-GA), in a lawsuit against Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. The suit claimed that signature matching for mail-in ballots, as executed in the November 3, 2020, General Election was “unconstitutional, arbitrary, and inconsistent.”

The three-judge panel – consisting of Clinton nominee Charles Wilson, Obama nominee Beverly Martin, and Trump nominee Robert Luck, ruled Sunday that the plaintiffs did not adequately allege an injury that can be addressed to establish standing.

There is no "District Court of Appeal court." There is the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia and there is the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.

It was not a lawsuit at the 11th Circuit and it was not joined by Senators Loeffler and Perdue. It was a Motion for a Stay or Injunction Pending Appeal and Emergency Motion to Expedite.

In the original lawsuit in the District Court for Georgia, Northern District, a lawsuit was brought by CORPORATE Plaintiffs, (1) Georgia Republican Party, Inc., (2) National Republican Senatorial Committee, (3) Perdue for Senate, and (3) Georgians for Kelly Loeffler. Those are four corporate entities. The Loeffler and Perdue campaign corporate entities were parties, not Loeffler and Perdue personally.

https://www.democracydocket.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/45/2020/12/GRP-v-Raffensperger-11th-Circuit-Motion-for-Stay.pdf

No. 20-14741

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT

______________________

GEORGIA REPUBLICAN PARTY, INC., et al.,
Plaintiffs-Appellants,
v.
BRAD RAFFENSPERGER,
in his official capacity as Secretary of State of Georgia, et al.,
Defendants-Appellees.

______________________

ON APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF GEORGIA,
ATLANTA DIVISION (1:20-cv-05018-ELR)

______________________

APPELLANTS’ EMERGENCY MOTION FOR A STAY OR
INJUNCTION PENDING APPEAL AND
EMERGENCY MOTION TO EXPEDITE

The Courts found that the campaigns lacked standing.

https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/20433082/georgia-appeals-order.pdf

The 11th Circuit observed at 3:

Finding that the Campaigns lacked standing, the district court denied their motion for an injunction and dismissed their complaint. The Campaigns then appealed, filing an emergency motion to expedite and a motion for stay or injunction. The Campaigns’ emergency motion to expedite is GRANTED, and we now address the motion for stay or injunction.

The 11th Circuit stated at 4-5:

III.

We recently addressed traceability and redressability in the election-law context in Jacobson v. Florida Secretary of State, 974 F.3d 1236 (11th Cir. 2020). In Jacobson, we considered Florida statutes that delegated the county supervisors of elections the responsibility of printing ballots and putting the names of candidates in their proper places as required by law. Id. at 1253. The Secretary of State had the duty of giving the list of nominated candidates to the supervisor, but otherwise had no authority over the placement of the candidates’ names. Id. The plaintiffs—Democratic voters and organizations—sued the Secretary of State, alleging injury because Republican candidates appeared first on Florida election ballots. Id. But because an injury must be “fairly traceable to the challenged action of the defendant, and not the result of the independent action of some third party,” Lujan, 504 U.S. at 560, we found that any injury from ballot name order could not be traced to the Secretary. Jacobson, 974 F.3d at 1269. That is, because the Secretary could not decide the order that candidates were listed on the ballots, he could not redress the plaintiffs’ alleged injury. Id. Only the supervisors, independent actors who were not subject to the Secretary’s control and not parties to the lawsuit, maintained such authority. Id. Therefore, the plaintiffs did not have standing to bring their claims. Id.

Here, as in Jacobson, the Campaigns did not sufficiently allege a redressable injury to establish standing. Like in Jacobson, the Campaigns sued the Secretary of State. They alleged that the Secretary is the state’s chief election officer, that he has the authority and responsibility to manage Georgia’s electoral system, and that he, along with the election board members, has the duty to promulgate rules and regulations to obtain uniformity in the practices of election officials and to ensure a fair, legal, and orderly conduction of elections. But, just as in Jacobson, the absentee ballot statute puts the duty to “compare the signature” and accept or reject a ballot on the “registrar or clerk”—not the Secretary of State.

Other than being the chief election officer responsible for election laws, there is no allegation that the Secretary controls the local supervisors or has control over the signature verification process. While the Secretary has rulemaking authority, as in Jacobson, this power is limited to rules and regulations that are “consistent with law.” O.C.G.A. § 21-2-31(2). And the law gives the authority to conduct the signature-verification process to local supervisors, not the Secretary. Id. § 21-2-386(a)(1)(B).

The Campaigns’ motion for injunction asks us to do what we said could not be done in Jacobson: order a nonparty county official to do something contrary to state law. Since the Secretary and the election board do not conduct the signature matching process, are not the election officials that review the voter’s signature, and do not control whether the signature matching process can be observed, the Campaigns’ alleged injury is not traceable to the Secretary. And the Secretary does not have the authority to redress it. Further, to the extent the requested injunction sought to enjoin parties other than the Secretary and election board, that would exceed our authority because these other parties were not before the district court and are not before us.

IV.

The Campaigns have failed to make a strong showing that they have standing to bring their constitutional claims because they have failed to demonstrate that any alleged injury is traceable to, and redressable by, the State. Accordingly, the Campaigns’ emergency motion for a stay or injunction pending appeal is DENIED.


52 posted on 12/22/2020 12:11:00 PM PST by woodpusher
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To: RBW in PA

Our children and grand children will thank them because they will not know any better.
____________________________________________________________

You will have nothing and you will be happy.

It is VERY deep. Besides Fuhrer Klaus’s WEF, the CCP wants the steering wheel. A lot explained here:
Documentary: 2020 Election Investigation | Crossroads with Joshua Philipp
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WExMnjVKu44


53 posted on 12/22/2020 12:21:06 PM PST by JCL3 (As Richard Feynman might have said, this is reality taking precedence over public relations.)
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To: SeekAndFind

I’m beginning to think that the whole “lacking of standing” argument is predicated on the fact that the US Constitution is no longer in effect. Because it’s not.


54 posted on 12/22/2020 12:30:53 PM PST by Antoninus (The press has lost the ability to persuade. They retain the ability to foment a panic.)
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To: A Conservative Future
Yep. This isn't the CCP controlled Deep State™ using their evil technicalities. This is limited government - a bedrock conservative principle! - in action. The state does not have the power to order more scrutiny of mail ballot signatures; authority over those matters is devolved to the counties and that is where the case should be brought.

Your comment is utter nonsense.

55 posted on 12/22/2020 12:34:15 PM PST by FreeReign
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To: daler

The corrupt courts are one of this republic’s greatest problems. They are merely defenders of the system.


56 posted on 12/22/2020 2:51:30 PM PST by Starboard
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To: SeekAndFind

Why is “injury” necessary for standing?

If a law applies to you, you (should) have standing to challenge that law. I see no good reason otherwise.


57 posted on 12/22/2020 8:31:29 PM PST by Svartalfiar
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