Thread by @rickhasen

First thing to note about the Trump campaign brief in the 3rd Circuit: it throws Trump's prior counsel under the bus for "incorrectly omitt[ing] numerous allegations and counts"

https://twitter.com/joshgerstein/status/1330985678381985792

Key point: the Trump brief says it is not trying to disenfranchise 6.8 million PA voters, "just" throw out about 70,000 votes. BUT it also asks ultimately for court to void election, and let PA legislature choose electors. That IS disenfranchising 6.8 million PA voters.

The brief is procedurally weird, asking casually for a preliminary injunction or temporary restraining order. Trump campaign should be asking for an injunction pending appeal if it wants preliminary relief. But it doesn't. It wants remand to reconsider proposed amended complaint

Now, via @johnkruzel, is the Trump campaign's request for a Temporary Restraining Order filed in the 3rd circuit asking to delay the "effect" of likely certification. This is bizarre for a few reasons: /1 drive.google.com/file/d/1_492c-…

First, you don't ask an appeals court for a TRO. You go to the district court. You could ask for an injunction pending appeal, and maybe the court will construe it as that. But /2

They are trying to get a TRO asking to delay certification based on a complaint that the district court did not even accept for filing. And in their separate brief, they don't ask for 3rd circuit to order district to file, just to consider it. /3

So this is based on a non-operative complaint based upon evidence that is not in the record before either court (just a plea for discovery to use some mysterious statistical process to find and deduct illegal votes). /4

And the remedy is super strange too. They want an order that prevents the legal "effect" of certification. If the results are certified by the governor, nothing happens until the electors meet on Dec. 8. So what would this order even do? Bizarre. 5/5

https://twitter.com/rickhasen/status/1330989714015358977

May have to ask the @nytimes to correct my oped which says there's "nothing funny" about these efforts to steal the election and suppress the vote. Some of the Trump campaign's filings are making me laugh out loud.
nytimes.com/2020/11/23/opi…