Posted on 11/27/2020 9:53:45 AM PST by Alter Kaker
Free, fair elections are the lifeblood of our democracy. Charges of unfairness are serious. But calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof.
We have neither here. The Trump Presidential Campaign asserts that Pennsylvania’s 2020 election was unfair. But as lawyer Rudolph Giuliani stressed, the Campaign “doesn’t plead fraud. . . . [T]his is not a fraud case.” Instead, it objects that Pennsylvania’s Secretary of State and some counties restricted poll watchers and let voters fix technical defects in their mail-in ballots. It offers nothing more.
This case is not about whether those claims are true. Rather, the Campaign appeals on a very narrow ground: whether the District Court abused its discretion in not letting the Campaign amend its complaint a second time. It did not. Most of the claims in the Second Amended Complaint boil down to issues of state law. But Pennsylvania law is willing to overlook many technical defects. It favors counting votes as long as there is no fraud. Indeed, the Campaign has already litigated and lost many of these issues in state courts.
The Campaign tries to repackage these state-law claims as unconstitutional discrimination. Yet its allegations are vague and conclusory. It never alleges that anyone treated the Trump campaign or Trump votes worse than it treated the Biden campaign or Biden votes. And federal law does not require poll watchers or specify how they may observe. It also says nothing about curing technical state-law errors in ballots. Each of these defects is fatal, and the proposed Second Amended Complaint does not fix them. So the District Court properly denied leave to amend again.
Nor does the Campaign deserve an injunction to undo Pennsylvania’s certification of its votes. The Campaign’s claims have no merit. The number of ballots it specifically challenges is far smaller than the roughly 81,000-vote margin of victory. And it never claims fraud or that any votes were cast by illegal voters. Plus, tossing out millions of mail-in ballots would be drastic and unprecedented, disenfranchising a huge swath of the electorate and upsetting all down-ballot races too. That remedy would be grossly disproportionate to the procedural challenges raised. So we deny the motion for an injunction pending appeal.
.@RudyGiuliani and me on Third Circuit’s opinion:
The activist judicial machinery in Pennsylvania continues to cover up the allegations of massive fraud.
We are very thankful to have had the opportunity to present proof and the facts to the PA state legislature.
On to SCOTUS!— Jenna Ellis (@JennaEllisEsq) November 27, 2020
For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:
I have an opinion
Yep, trust Giuliani to undermine the case, saying there was no fraud.
A loss is a win, right?
In either case, this must happen now if not sooner. This nonsense has to be brought to an end.
This appears as bad news but is actually good news as it rockets the Constitutional issues to the US Supreme Court.
Wow
I think they were expecting this to happen. The intent was to just get past all these silly lower courts and get it to the Supreme court.
Yep, trust Giuliani to undermine the case, saying there was no fraud.
????
If I’m reading this blurb correctly, Rudy et al. did not file a court complaint of fraud, such as the 600,000/3,200 Biden data dump revealed on Wednesday...?
Is this correct...?
Makes no sense...have to read more...
Dang, sure looks like fraud to me!
Don’t you grasp the concept of ‘strategery’?
I have no clue why Trump hired him. Putting a guy in a courtroom in a high stakes case who hasn't been in a courtroom in 40 years seems like maybe a bad idea?
Yes Rudy is to blame for all of this..
That fantastic speech in front of the legislature is getting them to act like they are in control of the 20 electoral votes and not have this thing certified yet.
But don’t let facts get in the way of your disliking someone.
Have a good day
There is no such thing as Justice. Now it’s Just Us.
He is operating a Clown Show
Every day in almost every way I wish there was a team on the ground the likes of which George Bush put together
I will always believe Bannon would have been ready. I will always blame Kushner and Ivanka for this monumental screw up
This is ALL according to plan. It is SCOTUS where they want this all to end up as expediently as possible.
Isn't allowing these ballots that were fraudulent or arrived after the statuary law stated time disenfranchising the majority of voters that cast their ballots legitimately, on time and with all of the legal checks and validations?
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