No court allowed discovery and the Roberts cowardice showed in the solid case they had presented for Constitutional violations in PA.
“A core bedrock principle of our legal system is you can’t just sue because you don’t like something that’s happening in the world. You have to actually have been injured and you need to show that you are injured,” said Paul Berman, professor of law at George Washington University.
That constitutionally-based requirement is called “standing.” Some Trump supporters argue the cases were dismissed on technicalities and the allegations were never examined in court. But Berman said standing is the heart of the claim.
“If you can’t show that you have been injured by whatever it is the defendant supposedly has done — you don’t have a claim, and that’s not a technicality,” he said.
Several counties hired outside counsel to represent them in the election litigation, and the cost dug into budgets that were strapped for cash during the COVID-19 pandemic.
www.witf.org
“Having election litigation is not the problem,” Berman said. “The problem is filing litigation with no basis in fact or law. That is what corrodes respect for the judicial system and ultimately is really just about sowing chaos.”
American courts were designed to be a plaintiff-forward system. Berman said when a plaintiff files a claim, they are not expected to have all the evidence needed to prove their case. He says plaintiffs can have access to discovery and other sources that may have the evidence they seek.
“But on the other hand, we don’t want to just allow every case to go forward because then government, police forces, corporate defendants, and so on would be tied up in litigation all the time. And it would impose undue costs. So this is a difficult balance that has to be struck,” he said.
Yet legal fees stacked up because lawyers had to respond to the claims. The Department of State spent $3.4 million. And counties’ combined total was more than $1 million.
The institutions held … but were left battered and bruised
Trump’s election-fraud lie and extensive litigation helped sow doubt in many voters’ minds about the legitimacy of the election and their faith in the legal system.
No widespread fraud was uncovered after over 60 lawsuits, some adjudicated by Trump appointees. Pennsylvania counties conducted a standard recount of votes before they were certified in November and found no evidence of malpractice. And, federal, state and local officials from both parties have said the election was secure.
And yet, about
two-thirds of Republican voters believe the election was stolen.
Elaine Kamarck, founding director of the Center for Effective Public Management at the Brookings Institute, said
the post-election lawsuits abused the system, especially given the fact that none brought in Pennsylvania would have changed the result had they been successful.
“All they’re doing is spreading distrust of the legal system,” she said.