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Akiva Cohen Profile picture
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28 Dec, 9 tweets, 2 min read
Somebody asked me about this idiotic "PenceCard 2: Electric Boogaloo" article, and people, just stop worrying about this stuff.

americanthinker.com/articles/2020/…
The conspiracy wing of the GOP is going to keep pumping out these "Ten Neat Tricks to steal an election [number 8 will shock you!]" articles straight through the inauguration. (Yes - don't expect this to stop after the electoral votes are counted)
None of it is real. None of it has any legal basis. It's fantasy written by fantasists for coping MAGA-ites who find reality just too painful to accept. Ignore it.
This particular flavor of wishcasting was written by Ted Noel. Unless there are two "Ted Noel"s writing nonsense for the American Thinker, Noel is a doctor, not a lawyer or scholar, who nevertheless writes about legal issues (americanthinker.com/articles/2020/…)
This actually makes me feel a bit better, because the thought that a *lawyer* could think that Pence had "plenary power" to discard state election certificates for any reason he chose is - even after watching Wood, Powell, Kaardal, and the rest - somehow too hard to contemplate
Look, these people are inventing unicorns to cope. And as each successive "one neat trick" fails - they lose elections, lose court cases, state legislatures don't just toss out election results, Pence doesn't declare certificates invalid on the 4th weds, etc. - it gets weirder
and weirder and weirder. I can't predict where they're going to go next, and neither can you. They're inventing new worlds and new monsters and new frontiers.

Just know that whatever it is, it will only exist inside their heads, and STOP. WORRYING. ABOUT IT.
Feel free to worry about what it means for the country that people believe this lunacy. That's a real problem.
But stop worrying that "but if a pegasus riding a unicorn on stilts appears in Missoula before Biden is inaugurated then the Constitution says the electoral loser gets appointed" is (1) an accurate statement of the law; and (2) a thing that could happen. Just stop.

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More from @AkivaMCohen

Akiva Cohen Profile picture
29 Dec
OK, as promised, a live-read thread on Gohmert's motion in the stupid "the VP gets to pick the next President" litigation.

I'm not going to repeat stuff I addressed when I went through the complaint so if you need a refresher, start here
So first of all, let's see what they're asking for. An expedited decision on the case, and permanent injunctive relief (i.e. an order directing Pence how to act when counting electoral votes) and they want it by Thursday the 31st. The second two screenshots are the local rule ImageImageImageImage
They do not, however, explain why 12/31 is the magic date (when the acts they're worrying about would be on 1/6), and there's a slight logistical problem in asking for a schedule that requires a ruling on a motion in 3 days when you HAVEN'T YET BOTHERED TO SERVE THE DEFENDANT Image
Read 95 tweets
Akiva Cohen Profile picture
28 Dec
Oh come on, guys, give me some time off!

Note: This is a new litigation seeking a declaratory judgment that the Electoral Count Act is unconstitutional in that it conflicts with the 12th Amendment.

It doesn't
Here's the entire 12th Amendment. Pay attention to the highlighting and follow along
Here's the 12A process

1) "The Electors" meet, vote, and transmit their lists of votes to the President of the Senate
2) The PoS SHALL open the certificates and count the votes
3) Whoever has a majority wins
4) If nobody has a majority after counting, the House delegations vote
Read 75 tweets
Akiva Cohen Profile picture
27 Dec
Seth has blocked me. But you all should see this anyway. Aside from Seth's prior admissions that he sees "metamodernism" as a way of "lying things into being" (see his post-Hillary nomination piece from 2016), his post-hoc justification for lying to you

Is that he's just "brainstorming". But it's easy to do that without abusing your trust and lying to you about what the law *is*. When Seth says things like "a pardon is invalid if it's obstructing impeachment" he isn't "brainstorming" - he's making a foundational claim about the
law that is simply false. It would have been easy enough to come clean and say "I'd like it if we reinterpret the relevant provisions to mean...", acknowledged the contrary precedent, and reckoned with it. That's someone arguing for a change in the law
Read 6 tweets
Akiva Cohen Profile picture
27 Dec
Kurds are not Arabs. Are they "Middle Eastern"?
Iranians are not Arabs. Are they "Middle Eastern"?
Some Israelis are not Arabs. Are they "Middle Eastern"?
Read 6 tweets
Akiva Cohen Profile picture
24 Dec
Oh, for fuck's sake, Seth. Can't you take like two weeks off from misinforming people about the law?

Almost every word of this thread is wrong, starting from its fundamental premise. The Pardon Clause does NOT the PARDON power that way
Here's what the Pardon Clause says: the President "shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment."
It does NOT say "except where the offense is relevant to the impeachment of someone else" or "except where the pardon will obstruct someone else's impeachment"
Read 40 tweets
Akiva Cohen Profile picture
23 Dec
In the cold light of morning, I'm still completely amazed by the legal belly flop that @ThomasMoreSoc filed in the DC District Court. It's the legal equivalent of watching the butt fumble, live

EVERYTHING you could possibly get wrong in a complaint, they managed
Start with the plaintiffs. The ONLY claims in the lawsuit are that the Constitution gives state legislatures the right to set the manner of elections, which they have allegedly (we'll get to this insanity) failed to do.
There's oodles of caselaw saying "since that's a right of the state legislature, only state legislatures, as a body, can bring such a claim"

Are the plaintiffs state legislatures?
Read 34 tweets

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