Scudder said the election changes were not significant enough to conflict with the Constitution’s provision that state legislatures determine how to select presidential voters. He also blamed Trump for challenging these provisions after the election, not before.
“The president had every opportunity before the election to press his own Wisconsin law challenges underlying his current claims. Having missed that opportunity, he cannot now – after the election results have been certified as final – try to bring up these challenges, ”wrote Scudder. “All of this is especially true, given that the Commission announced well before the election the direction it now challenges.”
The federal appeals court said it was not their job to enforce the details of the state law, but to ensure that the basic scheme approved by the state legislature was followed.
“Whatever the Commission’s actions are here, it does so in the form of authority expressly granted to it by the Legislature. And that authority is not diminished by allegations that the Commission erred in its exercise, ”wrote Scudder.
The legal defeat for the president on Thursday in the appeals court came when the U.S. Supreme Court remained silent on Trump’s latest offer to make judges accept a similar challenge in Pennsylvania. Trump’s lawyers asked the upper court to order Keystone state officials to respond by noon on Wednesday, but the court took no action as the Americans prepared for the extended holiday.
Republicans were also rejected on Thursday afternoon by a Georgian court because of an attempt to tighten deposit box restrictions and increase polling station access in connection with the two Senate run-off elections scheduled for January 5th.
At the end of a 90-minute hearing via Zoom, Fulton County Superior Court judge Kimberly Esmond Adams rejected the lawsuit filed earlier this month by the Republican National Committee and the Republican Party of Georgia.
“This court has no jurisdiction to hear you because of sovereign immunity,” decided Adams, referring to a legal principle that limits many cases against state and federal governments to cases where they have been specifically authorized by law.
During the session, the state’s most senior electoral lawyer seemed to adjust the GOP to hire an out-of-state law firm to handle the case.
“I understand that she is from Florida and has a little unfamiliarity with the law,” said senior assistant attorney general Russel Willard after introducing a Florida lawyer hired by the Republican Party.