“Free, fair elections are the lifeblood of our democracy,” wrote Pennsylvania Third Circuit Judge Stephanos Bibas in the opinion rejecting the Trump campaigns election suit appeal from the three judge panel, which every media outlet is quick to characterize as a REPUBLICAN APPOINTED panel.
They might note that two of the three were appointed by George W. Bush. Not exactly Trump judges, unlike the third member, who in fact IS a Trump appointee.
Nevertheless, Trump legal team’s Jenna Ellis, along with Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, released a joint statement condemning the “activist judicial machinery” of the state.
.@RudyGiuliani and me on Third Circuit’s opinion:
The activist judicial machinery in Pennsylvania continues to cover up the allegations of massive fraud.
We are very thankful to have had the opportunity to present proof and the facts to the PA state legislature.
On to SCOTUS!
— Jenna Ellis (@JennaEllisEsq) November 27, 2020
Still, the court’s ruling was absolutely brutal. “Charges of unfairness are serious. But calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here,” it reads. And that’s true, the campaign did not in fact allege fraud.
He said the word FAIR several times and we always hear about “free and fair elections,” but they sure seem to think that fairness is not a sufficient basis for a court case, so I don’t know.
"As discussed, the Campaign cannot win this lawsuit. It conceded that it is not alleging
election fraud. It has already raised and lost most of these state-law issues, and it cannot
relitigate them here."— Ed Morrissey (@EdMorrissey) November 27, 2020
But we’ll see what happens next.
UPDATE Mark Levin adds:
1. It’s very unfortunate that the two federal courts in Pennsylvania are slamming the door shut and rejectIng serious equal protection issues and preventIng discovery on fraud issues. And these opinions are very political in nature.
— Mark R. Levin (@marklevinshow) November 27, 2020
2. There’s a second case in Pennsylvania state court where the rogue state Supreme Court has stepped in to try to prevent the court from actually conducting a hearing. We will know more about that on Monday. https://t.co/m3l2sJfPzX
— Mark R. Levin (@marklevinshow) November 27, 2020
So like I said, we’ll see.