Filling You In On What Happened Yesterday

No standing for plaintiffs! The case is over.

— Raffi Melkonian (@RMFifthCircuit) November 2, 2020

"I also do not find the voting to be illegal. These are registered voters who gave their ID."

— Raffi Melkonian (@RMFifthCircuit) November 2, 2020

"If I had found standing, I would *probably* enjoin tomorrow's voting."

— Raffi Melkonian (@RMFifthCircuit) November 2, 2020

This is a reference to drive-through voting on Election Day. He seems to think the Election Code requires a ballot be cast "in a building" on that day. Whatever (meaning I'm not going to comb the EC to see if that's what it says or, more importantly, if that's how courts have interpreted it).

(b) "I am going to order you to maintain records of who votes drive-through tomorrow."

(c) "I am denying the motions to intervene because I am dismissing the case."

— Raffi Melkonian (@RMFifthCircuit) November 2, 2020

And here we are back to the problem of changing the rules close to an election. Yes, the 5th Circuit or even the Supremes could rule votes cast by car to be illegal and invalid. That would be a gross mistake, IMHO, in terms of both equity (a legal concept, not the commonsense one) and legal precedent.  I think that whole issue needs to be better briefed, although maybe it was.  I wouldn't know.

(b) "I am going to order you to maintain records of who votes drive-through tomorrow."

(c) "I am denying the motions to intervene because I am dismissing the case."

— Raffi Melkonian (@RMFifthCircuit) November 2, 2020

Dismissing the case AND entering an order against the defendant? Yeah, he can do that.

The reason is, so the Fifth Circuit can *affirm* his ruling even if they disagree on standing.

— Raffi Melkonian (@RMFifthCircuit) November 2, 2020

I'm going to lose visibility on this case as it goes up. Because of the extreme time sensitivity, a lot of this is going to be done on the phone/emails to the Court - we're not going to see all the public filings like normal (I think)

— Raffi Melkonian (@RMFifthCircuit) November 2, 2020

The main reason I came here was for the lucid explanations.