[ad_1]
US President Adamant, Donald Trump, at a press conference last Friday, where he again claimed to have won the presidential elections on November 3. —REUTERS
A federal judge on Saturday dismissed a lawsuit critical to President Donald Trump’s risky attempt to overturn his Nov. 3 election loss to Democratic President-elect Joe Biden, calling his legal claim a “Frankenstein monster.”
The Trump campaign had sought to prevent state officials from certifying election results in the state.
Federal District Judge Matthew Brann in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, described the case as “strained legal arguments without merit and speculative allegations.”
Brann said he “has no authority to take the right to vote from even one person, let alone millions of citizens.”
Ballots by Mail
The lawsuit against Brann was filed on November 9 and alleged that the county election officials had treated inconsistently ballots by mail. Some counties notified voters that they could correct minor defects, such as missing “secret envelopes,” while others did not.
“This claim, like Frankenstein’s monster, has been stitched together at random,” Brann wrote.
Brann, nominated by former US President Barack Obama, is a Republican and, according to his biography, a member of the Federalist Society, a group of conservative and libertarian lawyers, law students and academics.
Trump’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani said in a statement it was disappointed with the ruling and would appeal. “Today’s decision turns out to help us in our strategy to get to the US Supreme Court quickly,” he said.
Court of Appeals
The campaign will ask the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia to review the ruling on an expedited schedule, according to Giuliani. Most of the judges on that circuit were nominated by Republican presidents. Four were nominated by Trump.
Trump to have any hope of annulling the elections, must reverse the result in Pennsylvania, which is scheduled to be certified by state officials on Monday.
“Today’s ruling is a victory for the rule of law and for Pennsylvania voters, whom the Trump campaign sought to disenfranchise the flimsiest legal theory imaginable,” wrote electoral law scholar Rick Hasen on Twitter. .
The Trump campaign and its supporters have filed dozens of lawsuits in six hotly contested states. The only victories of the campaign extended voting hours on Election Day at a handful of polling places in Nevada and sidelined some provisional ballots in Pennsylvania, according to court records.
Failed attempts in court
Attempts to thwart election certification have failed in the courts of Georgia, Michigan and Arizona.
In the case of Pennsylvania, Brann also denied a request for a campaign to amend the complaint and allege violations of the US Constitution. The campaign wanted Brann to allow Pennsylvania’s Republican-controlled state legislature to name voters who would back Trump in the Electoral College vote on Dec. 14.
Under Pennsylvania law, the candidate who wins the popular vote in the state gets all the electoral votes in the state.
A presidential candidate needs 270 electoral votes to win the election, and Biden leads the electoral vote tally by 306-232.
Electoral votes are distributed among the 50 states and the District of Columbia based roughly on population.
Read next
Subscribe to INQUIRER PLUS to get access to The Philippine Daily Inquirer and more than 70 other titles, share up to 5 gadgets, listen to the news, download from 4am and share articles on social media. Call 896 6000.
For comments, complaints or inquiries, please contact us.
[ad_2]
