FreedomWorks held a press conference earlier this week on ensuring election integrity, including making sure all nine seats are filled on the U.S. Supreme Court, making Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation an urgent matter.
“States such as Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Wisconsin have all but guaranteed we will not know the results of the 2020 election on the night of November 3rd,” Noah Wall, executive vice president at Freedom Works, said at the press conference. “Late game changes to election laws threaten the integrity of our elections and many of these changes will no doubt have to be settled by the courts.”
“Therefore, it is critical that the Senate fill the seat to ensure that the Supreme Court has the full complement of nine justices,” Wall added.
Cleta Mitchell, a partner and political law attorney at Foley & Lardner LLP, said that Democrats and left-wing groups filing lawsuits has created a great deal of uncertainty about Election Day.
“Left wing groups and Democrats have filed more than 150 lawsuits in the last 14 months to ask courts to — demand that courts, both federal and state — override the laws that the legislators have put in place,” Mitchell said. “This is something we’ve never seen before.”
“It is impossible to imagine, but it is true that as we speak in states like Montana, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, the final rules are still not in place because they are being litigated as we speak,” Mitchell said.
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) said that election confusion will most likely require judicial involvement in resolving any real or alleged problems.
“I think most Americans now believe this is going to somehow end up at the United States Supreme Court and the Democrats feel like they have a better advantage if they have four/four split,” Biggs said.
“The reality is you need nine, you need a full complement — Democrats know they can do that in the Senate, the Republicans know that, Mitch McConnell knows that, Sen. [Chuck] Grassley [R-IA] knows that,” Biggs said. “I think they are going to move forward and I encourage them to move forward, to get this hearing done even if you have to go by video conferencing.”
Biggs was referring to the Democrats strategy to seek a delay on filling the Supreme Court seat based on the danger posed by the coronavirus, even as Congress has held many virtual hearing since the start of the pandemic.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) said this scenario will take place even if President Donald Trump defeats former vice president Joe Biden on Election Day.
“It seems to be pretty widely accepted that Donald Trump will win the election day vote and so, in order to create confusion and chaos and lawfare in the interim, Democrats are trying to create some period of time after the election where there is uncertainty despite the president prevailing on that Election Day vote,” Gaetz said.
“Democrats have accepted the notion that Congress can do business when it fits their needs, when it accomplishes their policy objectives,” Gaetz said. “But when you have a Constitutional duty — as the Senate does here — to advise and consent on the President’s nomination, Democrats now all of a sudden believe that the gears of government must come to a halt.”
“Well, that cannot happen,” Gaetz said. “We must have a full complement on the court.”
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