A federal appeals court opened a lawsuit filed by a group of Republicans in a last-ditch effort to challenge President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld a lower court’s decision on Saturday to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) and a group of Arizona Trump supporters.
Gohmert and his allies were trying to empower Vice President Mike Pence to reject the results of the Electoral College when he oversees a session of Congress on Wednesday.
Lawmakers were suing Pence – a fact that even his lawyers acknowledged was strange.
“The vice president – the only defendant in this case – is ironically the same person whose power they seek to promote,” wrote a Justice Department attorney representing Pence, according to a report in The Hill.
“A process to establish that the vice president has discretionary power over counting, brought against the vice president, is a walking legal contradiction.”
The district judge who ruled on the case on Friday found that Gohmert and the other plaintiffs could not prove that they were harmed by Pence’s role.
The three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals – made up of two Republicans nominated by Ronald Reagan and another nominated by Trump – largely agreed.