Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, outside the Capitol, December 3, 2020.
Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images
Rep. Louie Gohmert has become the youngest Republican to file a long-running lawsuit to block President-elect Joe Biden’s victory – this time by suing Vice President Mike Pence.
The latest legal attempt, filed Sunday, comes from Gohmert, a back-term Texas congressman, along with 11 Arizona residents nominated by the state Republican Party to serve as voters.
It will be a week before Pence presides over a joint congressional session in which the Electoral College will vote for Biden and President Donald Trump.
Voters had cast their ballots two weeks earlier. Biden received 306 votes – 36 more than he needed to win – while Trump received 232.
The case calls for federal judge Jeremy Kernodle, a nominee for Trump in eastern Texas, to declare that Pence has the “exclusive authority and sole discretion” to decide which votes to elect from a given state.
While pro-Trump voters in some states who have won Biden cast their own votes, experts say the votes have no legal weight.
The Republican indictment alleges that part of the 1887 Electoral Code must be declared unconstitutional as it conflicts with the 12th Amendment.
The amendment contains “the exclusive dispute resolution mechanisms”, the lawsuit alleges, including that “Vice President Pence determines which voter votes apply to that state or not.”
Lawyers quickly dismissed the Republicans’ lawsuit as hopelessly far-fetched.
“No, it will not work,” tweeted Rick Hasen, an election expert at the University of California, Irvine.
“The case will go nowhere,” wrote Joshua Geltzer, executive director of Georgetown University’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection.
“This is insane,” tweeted Anthony Michael Kreis, a professor of law in Georgia.
Spokesmen for Pence’s office did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
The case also alleges that ‘public reports’ highlighted widespread electoral fraud ‘in the field of the campaign’, citing a document written by White House adviser Peter Navarro, which contains numerous claims rejected in other lawsuits or was debunked by fact checkers.
Trump refused to concede to Biden. He falsely claimed to have won the race while publicly pressuring Republican lawmakers to “act and fight for the presidency.” At the same time, Trump is spreading unfounded and disparaging conspiracy theories about widespread voter and election fraud.
Some Republicans in the House have stated they will contest the election results when Congress convenes to count the January 6 election votes. Mitch McConnell, leader of the majority of the Senate, according to Kuk encouraged his caucus not to make similar objections.
Any objections to the election must be submitted in writing and signed by at least one House and one Senate member. If an objection arises, the two chambers consider the objection separately.
The Trump campaign and several allies of the president have launched dozens of attempts to challenge the election results in numerous swing states. None of these legal attempts succeeded in invalidating Biden’s votes or reversing the results of any state’s presidential election.
The U.S. Supreme Court earlier in December rejected a bid by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to sue four major swing states in the voting procedure. Trump called that lawsuit “the big one.”