[ad_1]
WASHINGTON – The House of Representatives on Thursday asked a Texas federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit by a Republican congressman to give Vice President Mike Pence the power to decide which electoral votes will be counted when Congress meets on January 6 to finalize the November presidential election.
The House made the demand after Mr Pence himself weighed in against the plaintiffs – Representative Louie Gohmert of Texas and several Arizona Republicans who ran unsuccessfully in the presidential election – in a Department of Justice brief. Justice qualifying the trial as a “walking legal contradiction”. Mr Gohmert named Mr Pence as the sole defendant, which the Justice Department noted as “ironically the very person whose power they seek to promote”.
PENCE DID NOT SUPPORT LAWYERS ‘PLAN TO VOID ELECTION RESULTS: LAWYERS
According to a court file, lawyers for Mr Gohmert tried to reach an agreement with Mr Pence over the trial, but those talks failed.
U.S. Representative Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, left, and Vice President Mike Pence.
Mr Gohmert’s trial challenges the procedures that will govern Congress’s electoral vote count next week, which will cement the victory of President-elect Joe Biden. Further, the lawsuit argues that the 1887 Electoral Tally Act, which assigns the vice president a ceremonial role in announcing election results, circumscribes his power under the 12th Amendment.
The 12th amendment states that “the President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and the House of Representatives, open all certificates and the votes will then be counted”.
“ Under the 12th Amendment, only defendant Pence has the exclusive power and sole discretion to initiate and authorize the counting of the electoral votes for a given state, and where there are competing lists of voters. , or when there is an objection to a single list of voters, to determine which voters’ votes, or if there are none, will be counted, ”says Gohmert’s brief.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“The use by amendment of the active voice and the mention of the vice-president in the first clause -” The president of the Senate must … open all certificates “- in contrast to its use of the passive voice and the ‘omission of the vice-president of the The second clause – “the votes will then be counted” – demonstrates that the amendment assigns to the vice-president the task of opening the certificates and leaves the counting of the votes to others “, a writes House Attorney General Douglas Letter in his response.
The Justice Department, while avoiding an opinion on the 12th Amendment, has suggested that Mr. Gohmert could instead sue Congress himself, since the 1887 act gives the legislature powers it seeks to transfer to Mr. Pence.
The department is acting on behalf of Mr. Pence because he was prosecuted in his official capacity.
This story continues in the Wall Street Journal.
Siobhan Hughes and Deanna Paul contributed to this article.
[ad_2]
Source link