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The Republican lawmaker’s lawsuit was aimed at allowing Mike Pence to reject the electoral college votes for Joe Biden at the Congress meeting on January 6.
A federal judge has dismissed the lawsuit of a Republican congressman who sought to allow Vice President Mike Pence to reject the electoral college votes for Joe Biden when Congress meets Jan.6 to certify his victory over President Donald Trump.
The latest long-running attempt by Trump’s Republican allies to overturn the Nov. 3 election result was rejected on Friday by one of Trump’s own federal bench delegates, Jeremy Kernodle.
He ruled that U.S. Representative Louie Gohmert of Texas and a list of Republican voters in Arizona could not demonstrate that they suffered “sufficiently traceable” personal injury from Pence’s allegedly illegal conduct and, therefore, did not have the legal capacity to take the case.
The standing requirement “helps uphold the limited role of federal courts in our constitutional system. The problem for plaintiffs here is that they lack status, ”Kernodle wrote.
A Trump spokesperson asked questions of Pence’s office. A spokesperson for Pence declined to comment, while a spokeswoman for Gohmert did not immediately comment.
Trump refused to concede defeat to Democrat Biden and repeatedly wrongly claimed the election was tainted with widespread fraud.
He and his allies lost dozens of judicial efforts to overturn the election results.
Biden defeated President Donald Trump by 306-232 in the Electoral College and is expected to be sworn in on January 20.
In the Electoral College system, “electoral votes” are assigned to states and the District of Columbia based on their representation in Congress.
Gohmert’s lawsuit argued that Pence had the discretion to decide which votes should count.
They also asked the judge to ban Pence from following the 1887 Electoral Tally Act, which explains how objections to votes are handled by Congress.
Some Republicans have said they plan to oppose the presidential voter count next week in Congress.
Reuters news agency reported this week that the effort could spark a lengthy Senate debate but has virtually no chance of overturning the results.
A Justice Department attorney representing Pence on Thursday urged Kernodle to dismiss the lawsuit, saying they sued the wrong person because they raised “a host of important legal questions about how electoral votes for the president are to be counted “.
“The Senate and House, not the Vice President, have legal interests that are sufficiently unfavorable to complainants to form a case or controversy,” the Pence brief said.
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