The Pennsylvania Supreme Court rejected one of the main arguments raised by the Trump campaign on observers. The Court found that officials are only required to be in the room not necessarily close to observe details. It deferred to the officials...
...This is a matter of state law and the Court ruled that the legislature did not specify a distance and it would not judicially add one as a matter of interpretation. That is a fairly textual approach that many conservative jurists would find compelling.
As I stated last week, observer and sharpie challenges are not going to do much for challenging these results. The Trump team has to produce systemic problems with authentication or tabulation. In the interim, the GSA needs to "ascertain" this election to allow for a transition.
A second county in Georgia has found a couple thousand of uncounted ballots. apnews.com/article/electi… Again, no evidence of intentional fraud but additional examples of human error.
...While we have all noted that recounts generally only change a small number of votes, these two counties involve thousands of uncounted votes. Given the margin, it is still unlikely to change the result, but it shows the value of such recounts for these voters.
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Giuliani is raising the "curing" issue and the Equal Protection claim. The challenge is with the number of affected "cured" ballots and the tendency of courts to use the mootness doctrine to dismiss such challenges if insufficient to change the outcome. jonathanturley.org/2020/11/18/is-…
Giuliani is quoting My Cousin Vinny on the inability of observers to observe from the required areas of separation. He is citing 60 affidavits. However, this claim has not been successful in the state courts.
...CNN is not showing the press conference on the Trump claims of voter fraud.
Martha Raddatz is exploring the continued failure to officially start the transition briefings for Biden-something many of us have called for. Since the tabulation period is now effectively over, I fail to see the basis for the GSA not "ascertaining" a Biden victory...
... My equal concern is the lack of Covid briefings with the task force. Trump can continue to litigate these challenges, but many of us said that this week would be critical to seeing any evidence of systemic problems or fraud. That has not emerged in these cases.
...Ascertainment under the federal law is not calling any election or certifying results. It is merely an administrative decision that sufficient evidence supports releasing transitions funds and resources. That should have been done last week.
My agreement with some of Alito's points does not alter the concerns over the messenger rather than the message. I still maintain that justices should speak primarily, if not exclusively, through their opinions. jonathanturley.org/2020/11/13/unf…
...All of those issues have been and will again be before the Court. Indeed, as Alito was making these ill-considered comments, the Catholic Church was coming before his Court in these very issues.
...It is also worth noting that many liberals are objecting to Alito’s speech despite celebrating even more alarming public speeches by Justice Ginsburg during his life. Indeed, these public controversies highlight the glaring contradiction in the use of the “Ginsburg Rule.”
Busy day. Over at the Senate, Lindsey Graham is drilling Andrew McCabe on the strange contrast in the FBI pouring in resources into investigating the Trump associates on a lead from an English bar but not a CIA referral of a Hillary Clinton/Russia allegation.
McCabe seems bizarrely unaware of any evidence that undermined the investigation including the CIA information the FBI that Carter Page was a CIA operative. As with Comey and Yates, no one will admit knowledge or responsibility. It is as if the FBI was left on auto-pilot.
McCabe just joined Comey, Rosenstein, Yates and others saying that he would never have signed off on the surveillance if he knew then what he knows today. That seems to make it unanimous on both the abusive surveillance and unanimous on the denial of personal responsibility.
Chief Justice Roberts just asked House Counsel Verilli about how "eight years ago" the individual mandate in the ACA was vital. Roberts asked "Why the bait and switch?" He then asked if they were "talking about broccoli for nothing?"
In truth it was a bait and switch and Roberts fell for it. Verrilli insisted that we are allowed to "learn from our mistakes." In other words, you can ignore everything we said before.jonathanturley.org/2010/03/31/is-…
Thomas is asking a question! He is also raising whether the Court was played by the Obama Administration in claiming that the individual mandate was the ACA's "the heart and soul." It used that argument to secure the ruling of constitutionality but it is now shrugging it off.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has demanded whether "anyone [is] archiving these Trump sycophants for when they try to downplay or deny their complicity in the future? I foresee decent probability of many deleted Tweets, writings, photos in the future." jonathanturley.org/2020/06/05/mea…
...It may be a "probability" but there is nothing "decent" about it. Those who sought desperately to align themselves with the cancel movement may find that the status of being a revolutionary or a reactionary can be fleeting. jonathanturley.org/2020/08/31/how…
...On Fox, Sanders surrogate Nomiki Konst clarified that when AOC was calling for a black list of people to be canceled she was specifically referring to people in the Lincoln Project as the "perfect examples" of people to be cancelled despite their work against Trump.