Post-election lawsuits related to the 2020 United States presidential election
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After the
2020 United States presidential election United States presidential election, Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 3, 2020. The Democratic Party (United States), Democratic ticket of former vice president Joe Biden and California junior senator Kamala H ...
, the campaign for incumbent President Donald Trump and others filed 62 lawsuits contesting election processes, vote counting, and the vote certification process in 9 states (including
Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...
,
Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...
,
Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...
,
Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...
,
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...
, and
Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...
) and the
District of Columbia Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...
. Nearly all the suits were dismissed or dropped for lack of evidence or lack of standing, including 30 lawsuits that were dismissed by the judge after a hearing on the merits. Among the judges who dismissed the lawsuits were some appointed by Trump himself. Judges, lawyers, and other observers described the suits as " frivolous" and "without merit". In one instance, the Trump campaign and other groups seeking his reelection collectively lost multiple cases in six states on a single day. Only one ruling was initially in Trump's favor: the timing within which first-time Pennsylvania voters must provide proper identification if they wanted to "cure" their ballots. This ruling affected very few votes, and it was later overturned by the
Pennsylvania Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Unified Judicial System. It began in 1684 as the Provincial Court, and casual references to it as the "Supreme Court" of Pennsylvania were made offici ...
. Trump, his attorneys, and his supporters falsely asserted widespread election fraud in public statements, but few such assertions were made in court. Every state except Wisconsin met the December 8
statutory A statute is a law or formal written enactment of a legislature. Statutes typically declare, command or prohibit something. Statutes are distinguished from court law and unwritten law (also known as common law) in that they are the expressed wil ...
"safe harbor" deadline to resolve disputes and certify voting results. The Trump legal team had said it would not consider this election certification deadline as the expiration date for its litigation of the election results. Three days after it was filed by Texas attorney general
Ken Paxton Warren Kenneth Paxton Jr. (born December 23, 1962) is an American politician and lawyer who has served as the attorney general of Texas since 2015. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served in the Texas Senate representing the e ...
, the U.S. Supreme Court on December 11 declined to hear a case supported by Trump and his Republican allies asking for electoral votes in four states to be rejected. One suit, '' Michigan Welfare Rights Org. et al. v. Donald J. Trump et al.'', was brought by black voter groups in Michigan against Trump and his 2020 presidential campaign.
Dominion Voting Systems Dominion Voting Systems Corporation is a North American company that produces and sells electronic voting hardware and software, including voting machines and tabulators, in Canada and the United States. The company's headquarters are in Toro ...
brought defamation lawsuits against former Trump campaign lawyers Sidney Powell and
Rudy Giuliani Rudolph William Louis Giuliani ( , ; born May 28, 1944) is an American politician and Disbarment, disbarred lawyer who served as the 107th mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001. He previously served as the United States Associate Attorney ...
, each for $1.3 billion.
Smartmatic Smartmatic (also referred as Smartmatic Corp. or Smartmatic International), or Smartmatic SGO Group, is a multinational company that builds and implements electronic voting systems. The company also produces smart cities solutions (including ...
brought a defamation lawsuit against
Fox Corporation Fox Corporation (commonly referred to as Fox Corp or simply Fox) is an American multinational mass media company headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas, 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Midtown Manhattan, with offices also in Burbank, Cali ...
and its anchors Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo, and Jeanine Pirro as well as Giuliani and Powell for $2.7 billion. In the aftermath of the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, several civil suits were filed against Trump, sometimes in combination with other defendants. The plaintiffs include members of Congress,
United States Capitol Police The United States Capitol Police (USCP) is a federal law enforcement agency in the United States with nationwide jurisdiction charged with protecting the United States Congress within the District of Columbia and throughout the United States an ...
officers, and District of Columbia Metropolitan Police officers. Two criminal cases have also been filed, '' The State of Georgia v. Donald J. Trump, et al.,'' a racketeering case against Trump and 18 other defendants, and '' United States v. Donald J. Trump'', an election obstruction case in the District of Columbia.


Background

Both before and after the election, the campaign for incumbent president
Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...
filed a number of lawsuits contesting election processes, vote counting, and the vote certification process in multiple states, including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin. Many cases were quickly dismissed, and lawyers and other observers noted that the lawsuits are not likely to have an effect on the outcome of the election. Trump, his supporters, and his attorneys asserted widespread election fraud in public statements. The Trump campaign suffered several setbacks on November 13, 2020. The
Department of Homeland Security The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior, home, or public security ministries in other countries. Its missions invol ...
released a statement saying that the election was the "most secure in American history" and that there was no evidence any voting systems malfunctioned. Sixteen federal prosecutors assigned to monitor the election sent a letter to Attorney General
William Barr William Pelham Barr (born May 23, 1950) is an American attorney who served as United States Attorney General, United States attorney general in the administration of President George H. W. Bush from 1991 to 1993 and again in the first adminis ...
saying there was no evidence of widespread irregularities. A law firm hired by the campaign in Pennsylvania quit amidst concerns they were being used to undermine the electoral process. The campaign dropped its " Sharpiegate" lawsuit in Arizona. A judge in
Wayne County, Michigan Wayne County is the most populous County (United States), county in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of 2020, the United States census placed its population at 1,793,561, making it the List of the most populous counties in the United States, 19th ...
, refused to halt the vote count or certification of the winner. In Pennsylvania, judges refused to block 8,927 mail-in votes in Montgomery and
Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
counties. Four lawsuits orchestrated by conservative lawyer James Bopp in Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania were dropped on November 16 after a federal appellate court said voters could not bring some constitutional claims. Sidney Powell was dropped as a lawyer for the Trump campaign on November 22, and was operating independently on November 23. By November 27, 2020, more than thirty of the legal challenges filed since Election Day had failed; by December 14, 2020, over fifty lawsuits had been dismissed. Federal judges in Georgia and Michigan rejected last-ditch efforts by
pro-Trump Trumpism, also referred to as the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement, is the political movement and political ideology, ideology behind U.S. president Donald Trump and his political base. It comprises ideologies such as right-wing p ...
lawyer Sidney Powell to overturn the election results on December 7, 2020.
United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan (in case citations, E.D. Mich.) is the United States district court, federal district court with jurisdiction over the eastern half of the Lower Peninsula of the State of M ...
Judge Linda Parker wrote, " is lawsuit seems to be less about achieving the relief Plaintiffs seek—as much of that relief is beyond the power of this Court—and more about the impact of their allegations on People's faith in the democratic process and their trust in our government." In the
United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia The United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia (in case citations, N.D. Ga.) is a United States district court which serves the residents of forty-six counties. These are divided up into four divisions. Appeals from case ...
, Judge Timothy Batten wrote, "They want this court to substitute its judgment for two-and-a-half million voters who voted for Joe Biden... And this I am unwilling to do." Judges who were nominated by Trump also dismissed the claims and reliefs made by the Trump campaign in the courtrooms. Voting machine companies
Dominion Voting Systems Dominion Voting Systems Corporation is a North American company that produces and sells electronic voting hardware and software, including voting machines and tabulators, in Canada and the United States. The company's headquarters are in Toro ...
and
Smartmatic Smartmatic (also referred as Smartmatic Corp. or Smartmatic International), or Smartmatic SGO Group, is a multinational company that builds and implements electronic voting systems. The company also produces smart cities solutions (including ...
threatened legal action, claiming that they were defamed by lawyers for Trump and right-wing media companies Fox, Newsmax, and OAN, who propounded conspiracy theories about the election technology companies. On December 18, 2020, lawyers for the Trump campaign told employees to preserve all documents related to Sidney Powell and the Dominion Voting Systems in relation to the suits. Dominion sued Fox News for $1.6 billion, and in February 2023 released subpoenaed internal Fox News communications that showed several prominent network hosts and senior executives—including chairman
Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian - American retired business magnate, investor, and media mogul. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of List of assets owned by News Corp, local, national, a ...
and CEO Suzanne Scott—discussing their knowledge that the election fraud allegations they were reporting were false. The communications showed the network was concerned that not reporting the falsehoods would alienate viewers and cause them to switch to rival conservative networks, impacting corporate profitability. *
DOMINION’S BRIEF IN SUPPORT OF ITS MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT ON LIABILITY OF FOX NEWS NETWORK, LLC AND FOX CORPORATION Dated: January 17, 2022 PUBLIC VERSION FILED ON FEBRUARY 16, 2023
In April 2023, Dominion settled with Fox News for $787.5 million, but a related $2.7 billion lawsuit by Smartmatic, another electronic voting systems, remains unresolved.


Legal analysis and reactions

Loyola Law School Loyola Law School is the law school of Loyola Marymount University, a private Jesuit university in Los Angeles, California. Loyola was established in 1920. Academics Degrees offered include the Juris Doctor (JD); Master of Science in Legal ...
professor Justin Levitt said " ere's literally nothing that I've seen yet with the meaningful potential to affect the final result".
Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...
election law professor Ned Foley noted " u have to have a legal claim, and you have to have evidence to back it up. And that's just not there."
University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a Public University, public Land-grant University, land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky, United States. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical ...
law professor Joshua Douglas said the lawsuits "all seem to have no merit whatsoever". Bradley P. Moss, an attorney specializing in national security, wrote that the suits "continue to defy reason and logic, and are purely theater... It's all a farce".
University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Irvine, California, United States. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, U ...
election law professor Rick Hasen said there is "no evidence of fraud so far that could conceivably affect the election results". Barry Richard, who helped to oversee the Republican-led Florida recount effort during the 2000 election, called the lawsuits "entirely without merit" and said they "will not be successful"; Gerry McDonough, an attorney who worked for the Gore campaign, said Trump "has no chance of overturning the result—it's just impossible". The
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is a component of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) responsible for cybersecurity and infrastructure protection across all levels of government, coordinating cyber ...
issued a statement calling the 2020 election "the most secure in American history" and noting " ere is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised".
Jones Day Jones Day is an American multinational law firm based in Washington, D.C. As of 2023, it is one of the largest law firms in the United States, with 2,302 attorneys, and among the highest-grossing in the world with revenues of $2.5 billion. Foun ...
, one of many law firms working for the Trump campaign and one that specifically handled ''Pennsylvania Democratic Party v. Boockvar'', faced internal criticism for its "shortsighted" efforts on litigation that "erode public confidence in the election results".


Summary of post-election lawsuits

The Trump campaign filed the most post-election lawsuits related to the 2020 United States presidential election in the
swing state In United States politics, a swing state (also known as battleground state, toss-up state, or purple state) is any state that could reasonably be won by either the Democratic or Republican candidate in a statewide election, most often refe ...
s of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. It was a strategic decision to file lawsuits in these states that were too close to call during the night of election day and remained uncalled for a few days.


Counts

Tally showing the number of lawsuits, sorted by state, that were dropped by plaintiff before a ruling, ruled against the plaintiff or dismissed by the court: this applying to all of the lawsuits filed by Trump and his supporters. The cases indicated to be ongoing refer to ''Michigan Welfare Rights Org. et al. v. Donald J. Trump et al.''; several cases filed against Trump and other defendants in the aftermath of the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, variously brought by members of Congress, United States Capitol Police officers, and District of Columbia Metropolitan Police officers; and two criminal cases, '' The State of Georgia v. Donald J. Trump, et al.,'' a racketeering case against Trump and 18 other defendants, and '' United States v. Donald J. Trump'', an election obstruction case. Of those cases, all but Georgia v. Trump were filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The one verdict in Pennsylvania ruled initially in Trump's favor, was after appeal, reversed by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court against the decision of the Commonwealth Court affirming the decision of the state's Court of Common Pleas reinstating the decision of the Allegheny County Board of Elections to count 2,349 ballots. Thus making the total ruled in favor for the Trump campaign in Pennsylvania 0 and total ruled against 2.


Case summaries


United States Supreme Court


''Texas v. Pennsylvania et al.''

On December 8, 2020, Texas Attorney General
Ken Paxton Warren Kenneth Paxton Jr. (born December 23, 1962) is an American politician and lawyer who has served as the attorney general of Texas since 2015. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served in the Texas Senate representing the e ...
sued the states of Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin in order to invalidate the results of the presidential election in those states; the lawsuit was filed with the U.S. Supreme Court as it has
original jurisdiction In common law legal systems, original jurisdiction of a court is the power to hear a case for the first time, as opposed to appellate jurisdiction, when a higher court has the power to review a lower court's decision. India In India, the S ...
over disputes between states. Texas alleged that the four states used the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
as a pretext to unconstitutionally change voting laws and increase the number of mail-in ballots. The attorneys general of Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin responded critically to the lawsuit, while Trump and seventeen Republican state attorneys general filed motions to support the case. After the office of Georgia's Attorney General Chris Carr described the lawsuit as "constitutionally, legally and factually wrong", Trump had a telephone conversation with Carr, in which he warned Carr not to rally other Republican state officials in opposition to the lawsuit. On December 10, over 100 House Republicans signed an amicus brief in support of Texas, including Minority Whip
Steve Scalise Stephen Joseph Scalise ( ; born October 6, 1965) is an American politician who has been the House majority leader since 2023 and the U.S. representative for since 2008. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he was ...
and the ranking member on the Judiciary Committee,
Jim Jordan James Daniel Jordan (born February 17, 1964) is an American politician who has served in the U.S. House of Representatives as the representative for since 2007. He is a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party. ...
. That same day, the attorneys general of Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin asked the Supreme Court to reject the lawsuit. In their briefs, the states challenged Texas' standing, and argued that the case did not belong in the high court; that Texas has no control over how other states conduct their elections; and that Texas waited too long to bring the suit. Legal experts criticized the lawsuit and said it was unlikely to succeed. Rick Hasen, an election law expert at the
University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Irvine, California, United States. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, U ...
, and Paul Smith, a professor at
Georgetown University Law Center Georgetown University Law Center is the Law school in the United States, law school of Georgetown University, a Private university, private research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It was established in 1870 and is the largest law ...
, questioned whether Texas has standing to bring the lawsuit and said the Supreme Court is unlikely to take up the case. University of Texas law professor Stephen Vladeck remarked, "It looks like we have a new leader in the 'craziest lawsuit filed to purportedly challenge the election' category." On December 11, 2020, the Supreme Court denied the case:
The State of Texas's motion for leave to file a bill of complaint is denied for lack of
standing Standing, also referred to as orthostasis, is a position in which the body is held in an upright (orthostatic) position and supported only by the feet. Although seemingly static, the body rocks slightly back and forth from the ankle in the ...
under Article III of the Constitution. Texas has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections. All other pending motions are dismissed as moot.
Justice Alito, joined by Justice Thomas, contributed an additional statement, disagreeing with the denial:
In my view, we do not have discretion to deny the filing of a bill of complaint in a case that falls within our original jurisdiction. See ''Arizona v. California'', 589 U. S. ___ (Feb. 24, 2020) (Thomas, J., dissenting). I would therefore grant the motion to file the bill of complaint but would not grant other relief, and I express no view on any other issue.


Arizona

Several lawsuits were filed in the state of Arizona. All of these were either dismissed or dropped.


District of Columbia


''Michigan Welfare Rights Org. et al. v. Donald J. Trump et al.''

Black voter groups in Michigan filed suit in the District of Columbia against the Trump campaign on November20, 2020, alleging the campaign has disenfranchised Black voters through their attempts to challenge election results in Detroit, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, and Atlanta. In December 2022, a federal court ruled in favor of the NAACP and the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization in this case. The Court's ruling allowed the plaintiffs to proceed with filing a second amended complaint.


''Wisconsin Voters Alliance et al. v. Pence et al.''

A lawsuit challenging the election results of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia and Arizona was filed by the Amistad Project of the conservative Thomas More Society. Among the plaintiffs were the Wisconsin Voters Alliance. Shortly after the lawsuit was filed, Michigan lawmakers Matt Maddock and Daire Rendon attempted to withdraw as plaintiffs, because "what was eventually filed is very different than what was initially discussed", said Maddock. The lawsuit named Vice President Mike Pence, Congress and the Electoral College among the defendants; however the Electoral College is not actually an entity, but a process. The request for injunction was denied on January 4, 2021, on the basis of lack of jurisdiction, lack of standing, and because Plaintiffs "have established no likelihood of success on the merits" since the request was based on a fundamental misreading of the law. Judge James E. Boasberg also stated that "at the conclusion of this litigation, the Court will determine whether to issue an order to show cause why this matter should not be referred to its Committee on Grievances for potential discipline of Plaintiffs' counsel" due to their failure to duly notify or serve Defendants, despite reminders from the Court. The lawsuit was withdrawn on January 7, 2021.


'' Thompson v. Trump et al., Swalwell v. Trump et al., and Blassingame et al. v. Trump''

Judge Amit Mehta was assigned as the judge for all three suits, and he consolidated the oral arguments for them, holding arguments on January 10, 2022, to consider whether Trump and the other defendants were immune from liability. The defendants had requested immunity on the grounds of the First Amendment, and those who were elected officials also claimed immunity based on that status. On February 18, 2022, Mehta denied the motion to dismiss some of the claims, while granting the motion to dismiss other of the claims. Trump then appealed the cases to the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals on July 27, 2022, claiming absolute immunity. The Court of Appeals ruled against him on December 1, 2023, allowing the civil suits to proceed.


'' United States of America v. Donald J. Trump''

This is an ongoing federal criminal case regarding Donald Trump's alleged participation in attempts to overturn the 2020 U.S. presidential election, including his involvement in the January 6 Capitol attack.


Georgia

Several civil lawsuits were filed in Georgia after the election. All of these were either dismissed or dropped. On August 14, 2023, a Georgia
grand jury A grand jury is a jury empowered by law to conduct legal proceedings, investigate potential criminal conduct, and determine whether criminal charges should be brought. A grand jury may subpoena physical evidence or a person to testify. A grand ju ...
indicted Trump and 18 other defendants in a criminal election racketeering case. This case is ongoing.


Michigan

Several lawsuits were filed in Michigan after the election. All of these were either dismissed or dropped.


Minnesota


''Kistner v. Simon''

On November 24, 2020, a petition was filed in the Minnesota Supreme Court by 25 candidates from numerous races within Minnesota as well as a handful of voters against
Minnesota Secretary of State The secretary of state of Minnesota is a constitutional officer in the executive branch, executive branch of government of the U.S. state of Minnesota. Twenty-two individuals have held the office of secretary of state since statehood. The incumbe ...
Steve Simon and the state's canvassing board. The suit alleged various election problems and sought a temporary restraining order delaying certification of election results, which had already been certified the previous day. On December 4, 2020, the Minnesota Supreme Court dismissed all 3 claims filed by the petitioners, and thereby ordered that the whole petitioned filed on November 24, 2020, be dismissed. The court's decision to dismiss was based partly on the grounds that petitioners should have filed suit earlier. "Given the undisputed public record regarding the suspension of the witness requirement for absentee and mail ballots, petitioners had a duty to act well before November 3, 2020," the ruling states. It goes on to say that "asserting these claims 2 months after voting started, 3 weeks after voting ended, and less than 24 hours before the State Canvassing Board met to certify the election results is unreasonable."


Nevada

Seven lawsuits were filed in
Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...
after November 3, 2020. All of these were either dismissed or dropped.


New Mexico


''Donald J. Trump for President v. Oliver et al.''

On December 14, 2020, the same day that New Mexico electors cast their electoral college votes, the Trump campaign filed a lawsuit in federal court against New Mexico Secretary of State, Maggie Toulouse Oliver, the electors of New Mexico and the State Canvassing Board. The lawsuit concerns the use of drop boxes in the 2020 elections. The federal lawsuit claims that New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver violated the state election code by permitting voters to deposit completed absentee ballots in drop boxes at voting locations rather than handing them to the location's presiding judge in person. The complaint asks the court to order a delay in certifying New Mexico's electoral vote, which had already occurred, and mandate a statewide canvass of New Mexico's absentee ballots, including investigations into every voting location where a drop box was implemented. On January 11, 2021, five days after Congress certified the results for Joe Biden, the campaign dropped the lawsuit. Trump attorney Mark Caruso cited "events that have transpired since the inception of this lawsuit" in a three-page motion as the reason for dropping the lawsuit. Although, the motion still allows for revisiting these concerns in the future.


Pennsylvania

Several lawsuits were filed in the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...
. Four had still been pending in federal jurisdiction at the United States Supreme Court. Of these, two lawsuits were filed after Election Day, and the other two were filed before the election. The lawsuits filed after Election day were ''Bognet et al. v. Boockvar et al.'' and ''Donald J. Trump for President v. Boockvar et al.''. ''Donald J. Trump for President v. Boockvar et al.'' was dismissed without comment by the Supreme Court on February 22, 2021. On April 19, 2021, more than five months after the November 3, 2020, election, the Supreme Court declined to hear the outstanding case brought by former Republican congressional candidate Jim Bognet, dismissing it without comment. In August 2024, a judge ruled that Washington County, Pennsylvania, violated state law by failing to notify voters when their mail-in ballots were rejected during the April primary election. The ruling ordered the county to notify voters of future rejections and allow provisional voting.


''Bognet et al. v. Boockvar et al.''

Asked a federal court to overturn the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's decision allowing the receipt of ballots after Election Day. Dismissed by the Pennsylvania district court, appealed to 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals; dismissed, and appealed to the Supreme Court where it was dismissed without comment on February 22, 2021.


''Donald J. Trump for President v. Boockvar et al.''

''Donald J. Trump for President v. Boockvar et al.'' is a lawsuit filed in the United States Supreme Court on December20, 2020. The suit asks the Court to evaluate the constitutionality of three Pennsylvania Supreme Court decisions: ''In re November 3, 2020, Gen. Election'', ''In re Canvassing Observation'', and ''In re Canvass of Absentee & Mail-In Ballots of November 3, 2020, Gen. Election.'' The Trump campaign also submitted a request to expedite proceedings, but the Court ignored this and instead set the deadline for reply briefs from the respondents for January22, 2021, two days after Biden's inauguration. It was dismissed without comment by the Supreme Court on February 22, 2021.


Texas


''Gohmert et al. v. Pence''

On December 27, 2020, Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert,
Arizona Republican Party The Arizona Republican Party is the affiliate of the Republican Party in the US state of Arizona. Its headquarters are in Phoenix. The party currently controls six of Arizona's nine U.S. House seats, seventeen of thirty State Senate seats, thi ...
Chair Kelli Ward, and other Republican party members filed a complaint in the
United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas (in case citations, E.D. Tex.) is a federal court in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, Fifth Circuit (except for patent claims and claims against the U.S. ...
. Vice President
Mike Pence Michael Richard Pence (born June 7, 1959) is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 48th vice president of the United States from 2017 to 2021 under President Donald Trump. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Repub ...
was named as defendant of the suit. The complaint argued that certain provisions of the Electoral Count Act of 1887 are unconstitutional under the Electors Clause and the
Twelfth Amendment of the United States Constitution The Twelfth Amendment (Amendment XII) to the United States Constitution provides the procedure for electing the president and vice president. It replaced the procedure in Article II, Section 1, Clause 3, under which the Electoral College origi ...
. The lawsuit's intended outcome was for Pence to be empowered to select self-styled "alternate" slates of electors from specific swing states on January 6, 2021, such that Trump received those states' electoral votes and wins the election; the Electoral Count Act does not give the Vice President any such "sole discretionary" power over electoral votes, and none of the self-styled "alternate" slates of electors from the swing states have been certified by their respective states' legal processes. Judge Jeremy Kernodle, U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Texas, called for Vice President Pence to issue a response to the lawsuit by December 31, 2020, at 5 p.m. and for Gohmert to issue a reply to Pence by January 1, 2021, at 9 a.m. Pence replied on December 31 that the suit should be dismissed because he is not the appropriate party to address the matter. The Justice Department also requested the suit be dismissed. On January 1, 2021, Gohmert and other Republicans filed a new brief contending that Pence is the proper defendant in the case, and that the United States or House or Senate parliamentarians could be added as defendants by the congressman for clarification. Gohmert stated that he needs a ruling by January 4, 2021. Nonetheless, the Justice Department supported Pence and noted that Congress, not Pence, is more suitable to be sued. In addition, congressional lawyers supported Pence's position as well. The case was dismissed without prejudice on January 1, 2021, for lack of both standing and jurisdiction. Judge Kernodle ruled that Gohmert lacked standing due to precedent set by the Supreme Court in 1997: alleging an "institutional injury to the House of Representatives" does not grant Gohmert standing to sue "as an individual". Additionally, Kernodle ruled that the injury Gohmert was alleging "requires a series of hypothetical—but by no means certain—events" that were "far too uncertain to support standing". As for the other plaintiffs, Kernodle ruled that they lacked standing because the injury they alleged was "not fairly traceable" to the Vice President. Gohmert appealed the district court's ruling that day. On January 2, a three-judge panel speedily and tersely rejected the appeal, "affirm ngthe judgment" of the district court "essentially for the reasons stated" in Kernodle's order. The unanimous ruling was made by three Republican appointees: Andy Oldham (Trump) and Patrick Higginbotham and Jerry Edwin Smith ( Reagan). Gohmert then appealed to the Supreme Court, which on January 7 also tersely rejected his petition as "denied".


Wisconsin

Several lawsuits were filed in Wisconsin after the election. A three-judge panel of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously rejected Trump's appeal of a lower court's ruling in ''Trump v.
Wisconsin Elections Commission The Wisconsin Elections Commission is a bipartisan regulatory agency of the state of Wisconsin established to administer and enforce election laws in the state. The Wisconsin Elections Commission was established by a 2015 act of the Wisconsin Legi ...
'' on December 24. The Court considered another case, ''Feehan et al. v. Wisconsin Elections Commission et al.'', though in December 2020 Sidney Powell filed an emergency petition with the
United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...
seeking an extraordinary
writ of mandamus A writ of (; ) is a judicial remedy in the English and American common law system consisting of a court order that commands a government official or entity to perform an act it is legally required to perform as part of its official duties, o ...
for intervention in the case. The petition was denied without comment on March 1, 2021, ending the matter.


''Mark Jefferson v. Dane County, Wisconsin''

On December 14, 2020, a petition was filed in the
Wisconsin Supreme Court The Wisconsin Supreme Court is the Supreme court, highest and final court of appeals in the state judicial system of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. In addition to hearing appeals of lower Wisconsin court decisions, the Wisconsin Supreme Court also ...
by Mark Jefferson and the
Republican Party of Wisconsin The Republican Party of Wisconsin is a conservative politics, conservative and Right-wing populism, populist political party in Wisconsin and is the Wisconsin affiliate of the Republican Party (United States), United States Republican Party (GOP) ...
seeking a declaration that (1)
Dane County Dane County is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 561,504, making it the second-most populous county in Wisconsin after Milwaukee County, Wiscon ...
lacks the authority to issue an interpretation of Wisconsin's election law allowing all electors in Dane County to obtain an absentee ballot without a photo identification and (2) Governor
Tony Evers Anthony Steven Evers ( ; born November 5, 1951) is an American politician and educator serving since 2019 as the 46th governor of Wisconsin. A member of the Democratic Party, he served from 2009 to 2019 as Wisconsin's 26th superintendent of p ...
' Emergency Order #12 did not authorize all Wisconsin voters to obtain an absentee ballot without a photo identification. The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled in favor of Mark Jefferson and the Republican Party of Wisconsin, stating that the Dane County government's interpretation of Wisconsin election laws was erroneous. "A county clerk may not 'declare' that any elector is indefinitely confined due to a pandemic," the court said. The court further stated that "...the presence of a communicable disease such as COVID-19, in and of itself, does not entitle all electors in Wisconsin to obtain an absentee ballot..." This ruling had no effect on the results of either Dane County or Wisconsin.


Ethics sanctions

On June 25, 2021, a New York State appellate court suspended attorney Rudy Giuliani's New York law license. A few weeks later, a Washington D.C. court suspended his Washington D.C. law license. In July 2024, Giuliani was officially disbarred in New York State. On July 12, 2021, U.S. District Judge Linda Parker of the
United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan (in case citations, E.D. Mich.) is the United States district court, federal district court with jurisdiction over the eastern half of the Lower Peninsula of the State of M ...
held a Zoom hearing and compelled the testimony of several lawyers that participated in post-election lawsuits, including Sidney Powell, L. Lin Wood, and others. The hearing is the first step in determining if lawyers that participated in post-election lawsuits should receive attorney misconduct sanctions or be referred to a regulatory body for
disbarment Disbarment, also known as striking off, is the removal of a lawyer from a bar association or the practice of law, thus revoking their law license or admission to practice law. Disbarment is usually a punishment for unethical or criminal conduc ...
proceedings, for violating the ethics of their profession. Judge Parker issued sanctions against the attorneys in August 2021, ordering them to pay the legal fees incurred by Michigan authorities and to take legal education classes. Parker also referred the attorneys to the states where they are licensed to practice law for possible disciplinary action. She wrote the attorneys had "scorned their oath, flouted the rules, and attempted to undermine the integrity of the judiciary along the way." On August 3, 2021, Magistrate Judge for the District of Colorado N. Reid Neureiter sanctioned two lawyers, Gary D. Fielder and Ernest John Walker, for a "frivolous" election lawsuit that was filed "in bad faith", containing "highly disputed and inflammatory" allegations that the lawyers made no efforts to verify. In November 2021, Neureiter ordered the two attorneys to pay the groups they sued $187,000 to defray their legal costs, and to deter similar frivolous suits.


In popular culture

Attorney Sidney Powell used the phrase "release the Kraken" to describe legal efforts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election. It became a catchphrase for unfounded conspiracy theory.


See also

* Pre-election lawsuits related to the 2020 U.S. presidential election *
Attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election After Democratic Party (United States), Democratic nominee Joe Biden won the 2020 United States presidential election, Republican Party (United States), Republican nominee and then-incumbent president Donald Trump pursued an unprecedented ...
* Donald Trump's false claims of a stolen election * '' Dominion Voting Systems v. Fox News Network'' *
Trump fake electors plot The Trump fake electors plot was an attempt by U.S. president Donald Trump and associates to have him remain in power after losing the 2020 United States presidential election. After the results of the election determined Trump had lost, he, his ...


References


External links


Voting Rights Litigation 2020
at the
Brennan Center for Justice The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law (NYU Law) is a liberal or progressive nonprofit law and public policy institute. The organization is named after Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan Jr. The Brennan Cente ...

COVID-Related Election Litigation Tracker
at the
Stanford Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth governor of and th ...
-
MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...
Healthy Elections Project
2020 Election Litigation Tracker
at
SCOTUSblog ''SCOTUSblog'' is a law blog written by lawyers, legal scholars, and law students about the Supreme Court of the United States (sometimes abbreviation, abbreviated "SCOTUS"). Formerly sponsored by Bloomberg Law and now owned by ''The Dispatch'' ...

News team decides to remind listeners of the attempted overthrow of the USA government by
Republican elected officials on January 6, 2021

( WITF; ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
''; May 2, 2021). {{2020 United States presidential election 2020 United States presidential election Controversies of the 2020 United States presidential election Donald Trump litigation
2020 United States presidential election United States presidential election, Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 3, 2020. The Democratic Party (United States), Democratic ticket of former vice president Joe Biden and California junior senator Kamala H ...
First Trump administration controversies