A federal appeals court has filed a lawsuit filed by a group of Republicans in a last-ditch effort to challenge the victory of President-elect Joe Biden.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on Saturday upheld a lower court’s decision 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 force Vice President Mike Pence to reject the results of the Electoral College when he oversaw a session of Congress on Wednesday.
Lawmakers sued Pence, a fact that even his lawyers acknowledged was strange.
“The vice president, the only defendant in this case, is ironically the person who seeks to promote power,” wrote a Justice Department lawyer representing Pence, according to a report published in The Hill.
“A lawsuit to establish that the vice president has discretion over the count, filed against the vice president, is a traveling legal contradiction.”
The district judge who launched the case Friday had found that Gohmert and the other plaintiffs could not prove they were harmed by Pence’s role.
The three-judge tribunal, made up of two Republicans nominated by Ronald Reagan and another nominated by Trump, largely accepted.