Dec 25, 2020

Three GOP-nominated Seventh Circuit Judges Rule Against Trump Wisconsin Election Challenge

Three Republican-appointed judges in the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed a dismissal of the Trump campaign's challenge to Wisconsin's presidential election and electoral college votes.

Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in Wisconsin by some 20,000 votes.

The case is Donald J Trump v. Wisconsin Elections Commission, (No. 20-3414).

The Trump campaign waited until two days after Wisconsin certified its results to challenge how the presidential elections were administered, notes the Trump v. Wisconsin Elections Commission opinion of the three-judge panel hearing the case.

The Trump campaign also invoked the Electors Clause of the United States Constitution in an argument many have called bizarre and without merit.

The three Republican-nominated appellate judges hearing the case are Judge Joel M. Flaum (Reagan), Ilana D. Rovner (H.W. Bush) and Michael Y. Scudder, Jr. (Trump). 

The opinion was released on Christmas Eve.

The Party identity of the president who nominated the judges is significant because Republican-nominated judges in the Seventh Circuit generally rule against voting rights and for Republican Party interests in federal election law litigation. 

The opinion was written by Judge Scudder.

In a specific consideration of Wisconsin voters vis a vis the Trump campaign, Scudder writes in part: "Allowing the President to raise his arguments, at this late date, after Wisconsin  has tallied  the  votes  and certified the election outcome, would impose unquestionable harm on the defendants, and the State’s voters, many of whom cast ballots in reliance on the guidance, procedures, and practices that the President challenges here (p. 9).

The legal news was trumpeted widely on social media.

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