Louie Gohmert
Photographer: Matt McClain / The Washington Post / Bloomberg
Photographer: Matt McClain / The Washington Post / Bloomberg
A federal judge in Texas filed a Ave Maria lawsuit filed against Vice President Mike Pence by a Republican congressman who argued the vice president has the authority to unilaterally reverse Donald Trump’s electoral loss during a joint session Wednesday in Congress.
U.S. District Judge Jeremy Kernodle on Friday dismissed Rep. Louie Gohmert’s lawsuit, ruling that the Texas congressman had not suffered a specific injury caused by any Pence action and therefore had no legal capacity to sue. . The judge did not rule on the substance of Gohmert’s argument, which would have radically transformed the role of a vice president.
“Congressman Gohmert’s alleged injury requires a series of hypothetical, but by no means certain, events,” said Trump-appointed Kernodle. “The plaintiffs presume what the vice president will do on January 6” and “what electoral votes the vice president will count or reject from the contested states.”
Gohmert argues that Pence has the power to hand Trump a second term simply by rejecting the Democratic blackboards of the swinging states and instead electing competing GOP voters when the Senate and House meet together to open and count the electoral voting certificates. Election experts have said that this finding would create a major conflict of interest.
Formal acceptance
The vice president has the constitutional role of chairing the Senate, which has traditionally included overseeing the formal acceptance of the Electoral College vote, which was won by President-elect Joe Biden.
Pence urged the judge to dismiss Gohmert’s lawsuit, and said in a filing Thursday that the congressman should have sued the U.S. Senate or the House of Representatives if he did not agree with the established manner in which the votes of the Electoral College were counted. Pence’s presentation was made by the Department of Justice.
Gohmert’s Dec. 27 lawsuit echoes Trump’s discredited claim that Biden won the election only through rampant election fraud perpetrated by thousands of corrupt Democratic officials and election workers. Some members of Congress have indicated that they will oppose during the joint session, although they are not enough to block Biden’s victory.
Gohmert’s lawyer, Howard Kleinhendler, did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.