Wasting Other People's Money

The lawsuit attempting to disenfranchise more than 100,000 voters in Harris County is patently wrong. #txlege pic.twitter.com/rk6eWXgPrK

— Joe Straus (@SpeakerStraus) November 1, 2020

Joe Straus is a Republican. He was forced out of the House by the Texas GOP for not supporting the "bathroom debacle" which Lite Guv Dan Patrick tried to ride to national fame before Patrick decided Grandma should take one for the economy.  That effort failed miserably, thanks to Straus (among others).  He's a voice in the wilderness in the Texas GOP, which is now headed by Allen West, who is as batshit crazy as ever.  Still, even the Texas SOS (also a Republican) thinks this suit is BS.  Now if the Federal Court just doesn't take up the insane Kavanaugh/Rehnquist argument the day before the election.  It is settled law in Texas that votes properly cast are valid even if the County Clerk violates state election law in accepting the ballots or setting up a ballot receipt location.  That should be the guiding principal for the federal court, but we live in interesting times.

Let me just lump things together, rather than expand posts beyond all measure:

President Trump denies he’ll declare victory early but says, “I don’t think it’s fair that we have to wait for a long period of time after the election...We’re going in the night of — as soon as the election is over — we’re going in with our lawyers.”

— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) November 1, 2020

And do what? Complain it's taking too long? That the cameras have been turned off and nobody's watching? That we need to know before Thanksgiving gets any closer?  What's the argument here?  Military ballots (the largest co-hort of mail in ballots) have to be received and counted, and that can't happen by midnight on November 3rd.  State laws prevail (even under the Rehnquist distortion of Article II) and they don't all uniformly declare all votes not tallied by midnight are null and void (none of the laws do, for that matter).  The only question is, how late can ballots be received?  There is no uniform national standard for that, nor has the Court ever established one.  They aren't likely to now, either, especially not if Kavanaugh's revival of Rehnquist (the Hallowe'en horror!) is the new prevailing rule.  That rule blocks the Court from establishing a one-size fits all deadline, especially if that deadline is the day after the election.

Trump isn't the only grifter in this crowd.  So are his lawyers, who know he hasn't a snowball's chance in hell, but are happy to spend his (the RNC's) money anyway.   The lesson of Jarndyce v. Jarndyce continues to be the rule:  no matter what, the lawyers always get paid.

Holtzman is wasting his own money in federal court in Texas Monday, but apparently he has it to waste.  If the trial court doesn't follow the lead of the Texas Supreme Court (it should, but no guarantees), I have no doubt the 5th Circuit will suspend any adverse ruling simply because Tuesday is Election Day.  There is a remedy for those rejected ballots; voters can cast provisional ballots Tuesday.  Now, tell them that.

This is why courts don't interfere in elections so close to the election day.  All they can really do is reject ballots (they can't approve them), and the results of that is rarely to shift the outcome (any more than recounts do).  But the appearance of putting a thumb on the scale and of confusing voters is not one they want to have on their reputation.  As I've said before, Bush v. Gore was originally a per curiam order with little explanation behind it, so the Court could not be seen as partisan (didn't work, but then, they deserved what they got in that fiasco).  So I think this one will end up being (in my favorite new metaphor) a fart in a hurricane.  As I say, apparently they have the money to waste and the willingness to waste it.