Judge throws out Trump bid to stop PA vote certification

[George II]

Source: The Morning Call

Pennsylvania officials can certify election results that currently show Democrat Joe Biden winning the state by more than 80,000 votes, a federal judge ruled Saturday, dealing President Donald Trump’s campaign another blow in its effort to invalidate the election.

U.S. Middle District Judge Matthew Brann in Williamsport turned down the request for an injunction by President Donald Trump’s campaign, dealing a sharp blow to the incumbent’s hopes of somehow overturning the results of the presidential contest.

Trump had argued that the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection under the law was violated when Pennsylvania counties took different approaches to notifying voters before the election about technical problems with their submitted mail-in ballots.

Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar and the seven Biden-majority counties that the campaign sued had argued Trump had previously raised similar claims and lost.

Read more: https://www.mcall.com/news/pennsylvania/mc-nws-pa-trump-court-vote-certification-20201121-4m2recbqfjeslhm5kevazb5l3y-story.html

[groundloop]

1. Such winning !!!!!!

[Gothmog]

2. This will be a fun opinion to read

Link to tweet

[BumRushDaShow]

3. WaPo breaking

In scathing opinion, federal judge dismisses Trump campaign lawsuit in Pennsylvania

By Jon Swaine
November 21, 2020 at 6:38 p.m. EST

A lawsuit brought by President Trump’s campaign that sought to block the certification of Pennsylvania’s election results was dismissed by a federal judge on Saturday evening. U.S. District Judge Matthew W. Brann granted a request from Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar to dismiss the suit, which alleged that Republicans had been illegally disadvantaged because some counties allowed voters to fix errors on their mail ballots.

Rudolph W. Giuliani, Trump’s attorney, personally took charge of the case and appeared at a hearing in Williamsport, Pa., Tuesday in an attempt to justify it. In his order, Brann wrote that Trump’s campaign had used “strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations” in its effort to throw out millions of votes.

“In the United States of America, this cannot justify the disenfranchisement of a single voter, let alone all the voters of its sixth most populated state,” Brann wrote.

Trump was beaten in Pennsylvania by President-elect Joe Biden.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/us-judge-dismisses-trump-campaign-lawsuit-in-pa/2020/11/21/cc097fbe-2c50-11eb-9b14-ad872157ebc9_story.html

[Cha]

7. Awesome! Judge says.. "Mock this..

ya trump Swamp Orange Dripping Blobs!"

Thank You, BRDS!

[BumRushDaShow]

9. I had expected him to rule yesterday since he cancelled the evidentiary hearing this past Thursday

And I was thinking maybe because he was going to lay it on THICK with the dismissal narrative and that he apparently did!!!

[Cha]

11. You were dead on.. wonder if

rudy had a clue this was coming? lol

[George II]

15. That may be why he was sweating so badly!

[Cha]

17. Shoe Dye rudy.. again

you can't make this shit UP!

[George II]

8. Thanks. I don't subscribe to the Washington Post. That's "scathing" indeed! He basically.....

....told trump to have coitus with himself (from Big Bang Theory!)

[BumRushDaShow]

12. There are a bunch of lawyer types tweeting stuff

I have been trying to check the news outlets on and off today hoping he would rule before Monday when they are supposed to certify the votes.

Some idiot GOP Congressman here in PA filed a suit just today in state Court trying to declare the GOP's OWN election law "unconstitutional" and throw out all the absentee ballots (including the ones that included votes for him), which he can't do because the law actually had stipulations written in it that requires that anyone challenging the constitutionality needs to file within 6 months after passage, and the law was passed a year ago!

[Taraman]

4. BTW -- Alicia Menendez's show is consistently excellent.

[George II]

5. Yes it is. Did you see the interview with Ayanna Pressley? She's brilliant!

[Budi]

6. K & R & BRAVO 👍 PA Judge!!

The Judge dead-stopped Trump's bullshit train

Ha. Ha. Ha.

[Gothmog]

10. From Prof. Hasen

Prof. Hasen is having fun https://electionlawblog.org/?p=118942

In a total loss the the Trump campaign, a federal district court in Pennsylvania has dismissed the most serious case brought by the campaign and denied the campaign a motion to file an amended complaint.

The judge just excoriates this suit, which those of us in the field have called ridiculous from the start:

In other words, Plaintiffs ask this Court to disenfranchise almost seven million voters. This Court has been unable to find any case in which a plaintiff has sought such a drastic remedy in the contest of an election, in terms of the sheer volume of votes asked to be invalidated. One might expect that when seeking such a startling outcome, a plaintiff would come formidably armed with compelling legal arguments and factual proof of rampant corruption, such that this Court would have no option but to regrettably grant the proposed injunctive relief despite the impact it would have on such a large group of citizens.

That has not happened. Instead, this Court has been presented with strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations, unpled in the operative complaint and unsupported by evidence. In the United States of America, this cannot justify the disenfranchisement of a single voter, let alone all the voters of its sixth most populated state. Our people, laws, and institutions demand more. At bottom, Plaintiffs have failed to meet their burden to state a claim upon which relief may be granted. Therefore, I grant Defendants’ motions and dismiss Plaintiffs’ action with prejudice.

In a 37-page opinion, the court concluded:

Defendants’ motions to dismiss the First Amended Complaint are granted with prejudice. Leave to amend is denied. “Among the grounds that could justify a denial of leave to amend are undue delay, bad faith, dilatory motive, prejudice, and futility.” Given that: (1) Plaintiffs have already amended once as of right; (2) Plaintiffs seek to amend simply in order to effectively reinstate their initial complaint and claims; and (3) the deadline for counties in Pennsylvania to certify their election results to Secretary Boockvar is November 23, 2020, amendment would unduly delay resolution of the issues. This is especially true because the Court would need to implement a new briefing schedule, conduct a second oral argument, and then decide the issues.

The court had many problems with the complaint, but this goes to the heart of the merits: “Granting Plaintiffs’ requested relief would necessarily require invalidating the ballots of every person who voted in Pennsylvania. Because this Court has no authority to take away the right to vote of even a single person, let alone millions of citizens, it cannot grant Plaintiffs’ requested relief.”

[George II]

13. Can these clown lawyers be sanctioned for such a ridiculous lawsuit? There has to be some penalty...

....for tying up the courts with idiotic claims.

[sheshe2]

14. Hello PA!

Love ya!

I agree that Ayanna is brilliant. Glad she is from my state, just wish that she was my Rep. Kennedy was, he left us and our new one was a Democrat before he was a Republican, voted Baker and went back to being a Dem.

[George II]

18. That's weird. Almost sounds like a couple of local politicians here:

One was a Democrat for a long time, couldn't get the job he wanted so switched to "independent", got elected to that position, immediately became a republican. He was voted out 4 years ago again as an "independent" and thankfully disappeared.

Another was an independent, became a Democrat, went back to independent, then republican, then independent and now republican again!!!

What's up with these idiots?

[sheshe2]

20. I think they are playing games with our heads and votes.

I read about some weird stuff that happened in Florida. I don't remember enough to post...just effing with Dems.

[Cha]

16. Poor widdle VOTE SUPPRESSORS ARE NOT

WINNING!

TY George!

[Princess Turandot]

19. And a shout-out to Mary Shelley: "This claim, like Frankenstein's Monster"...

Oh. Man.

"This claim, like Frankenstein’s Monster, has been haphazardly stitched together from two distinct theories in an attempt to avoid controlling precedent."

[Maxheader]

21. Fuck you stumpy...

You worthless bastard...

[Maeve]

22. Prefer the WashPost headline

In scathing opinion, federal judge dismisses Trump campaign lawsuit in Pennsylvania

The suit, in which President Trump sought to block the certification of the state’s election results, made “strained legal arguments without merit,” District Judge Matthew W. Brann wrote.

[George II]

23. Tweet just posted, using Giuliani's sweating photo.

Link to tweet

[riversedge]

24. . Ali Velshi--provides some content...........

Thread
See new Tweets
Conversation
Ali Velshi
@AliVelshi
·
1h
BREAKING: A federal judge has rejected the Pennsylvania Trump lawsuit in which Rudy Giuliani was involved. He has dismissed the suit.
Ali Velshi
@AliVelshi
·
1h
US District Court Judge Matthew Brann said the Trump campaign asked him to “disenfranchise almost seven million voters” and said he could not find any case in which a plaintiff “has sought such a drastic remedy in the contest of an election.”
Ali Velshi
@AliVelshi
·
1h
With such request, he said, one might expect compelling legal argument “and factual proof of rampant corruption.” Instead, he said, “this court has been presented with strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations.”
Ali Velshi
@AliVelshi
·
1h
“In the United States of America, this cannot justify the disenfranchisement of a single voter, let alone all the voters of its sixth most populated state.”

Link to tweet

?s=20

Link to tweet

?s=20

[William769]

25. Per the Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro

“Another one bites the dust.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/federal-judge-dismisses-trump-election-lawsuit-in-pennsylvania/ar-BB1beSEP?ocid=msedgntp

[birdographer]

26. So he is losing, losing, losing!

I love it.

[Marthe48]

27. Dismissed with predjudice means the suit can't come back in that form

This one is done. I hope.

[DeminPennswoods]

28. Yes that and Toomey officially congratulated Biden/Harris

Last edited Sun Nov 22, 2020, 01:06 PM - Edit history (1)

Pat Toomey, our R senator, who famously is always testing to see which way the wind is blowing, said Trump should accept the results.

https://triblive.com/news/pennsylvania/judge-throws-out-trump-bid-to-stop-pa-vote-certification/

Sen. Pat Toomey, the Republican from Pennsylvania, recognized the decision and called on Trump to “accept the outcome of the election” in a statement released Saturday night. “With today’s decision by Judge Matthew Brann, a longtime conservative Republican whom I know to be a fair and unbiased jurist, to dismiss the Trump campaign’s lawsuit, President Trump has exhausted all plausible legal options to challenge the result of the presidential race in Pennsylvania. … I congratulate President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on their victory.”

PAs @SenToomey (R) acknowledges Joe Biden’s win and urges the transition process to proceed:
“I congratulate President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on their victory. They are both dedicated public servants and I will be praying for them and for our country” pic.twitter.com/ksR9pbm6e3

— Jonathan Tamari (@JonathanTamari) November 22, 2020

[Marthe48]

30. I saw that headline

inch by inch. Ty

[mahatmakanejeeves]

29. Also. Trump got more votes (and percentage of the vote) in Philadelphia than he did in 2016.

WithPrejudiceHat Retweeted

Also. Trump got more votes (and percentage of the vote) in Philadelphia than he did in 2016.

Link to tweet