A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas and 11 Arizona Republicans that sought to force Vice President Mike Pence to essentially overturn the results of the election and hand it to President Donald Trump. U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Kernodle, a Trump appointee, said Gohmert and his fellow Republicans lacked standing to sue. In what was always seen as a far-fetched effort by Trump allies to change the outcome of the presidential race, Gohmert had argued that Pence could unilaterally alter the Electoral College count. The lawmaker had called on the court to say that Pence, who will preside over the Jan. 6 session to certify the election results, could unilaterally decide whether to throw out some of President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral votes.
Kernodle said that Gohmert and his allies couldn’t sue because no individual member of Congress has standing to sue if the harm supposedly affects the entire Congress. But in addition to the standing issue, the judge noted that Gohmert’s claim is entirely speculative and based on a series of hypotheticals. “Plaintiffs presuppose what the Vice President will do on January 6, which electoral votes the Vice President will count or reject from contested states, whether a Representative and a Senator will object under Section 15 of the Electoral Count Act, how each member of the House and Senate will vote on any such objections, and how each state delegation in the House would potentially vote under the Twelfth Amendment absent a majority electoral vote,” Kernodle wrote in his 13-page ruling. “All that makes Congressman Gohmert’s alleged injury far too uncertain to support standing.”
Even as he dismissed the case, Kernodle still left a door open for Gohmert and his allies to pursue their case in court. By dismissing the case without prejudice, Kernodle gave the lawmaker an opportunity to reframe their lawsuit. After the ruling Friday evening, Gohmert and the other plaintiffs said they would be appealing to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. In an interview with Newsmax, Gohmert said he was optimistic about the appeal but said the judge’s ruling meant that the only option left to those upset about the results of the election could be street violence. “Bottom line is, the court is saying, ‘we’re not going to touch this, you have no remedy,’” Gohmert said. “Basically, in effect, the ruling would be that you’ve got to go to the streets and be as violent as antifa and BLM.”
Kernodle’s ruling came a day after Pence, who was represented by Justice Department lawyers, called on him to reject the case, claiming that the arguments Gohmert was making meant he had to file suit against Congress, not the vice president. “A suit to establish that the Vice President has discretion over the count, filed against the Vice President, is a walking legal contradiction,” wrote the Justice Department lawyer. Lawyers representing the House of Representatives also said the Kernodle should dismiss the lawsuit because it would “authorize the Vice President to ignore the will of the Nation’s voters.”
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