An Editor’s Note to Subscribers:
Service Advisory: I’ve been away before the Thanksgiving holiday, but I wanted to drop in with an update from the road in the mountains.
Look out for more regular dispatches next week.
As Mary Peltola edges ever closer to cinching the Democratic Party’s 56th Senate seat, the Trump Justice Department still hasn’t abandoned its brazen attempt to interfere in the race.
Specifically, the government still hasn’t withdrawn its appeal of a lawsuit seeking to block the certification of Peltola’s near-certain victory pending an investigation to determine whether Alaska voters confused Republican incumbent Dan S. Sullivan with suspected spoiler candidate Dan J. Sullivan.
As the American Civil Liberties Union explained, that effort has always been “embarrassing and indefensible.”
“The Department of Justice’s apparent desire to enter the election-season political fray is no substitute for a legitimate legal theory, and it cannot justify a shameful attempt to hold Alaskans’ votes hostage,” the ACLU’s attorney Ari Savitzky wrote in a legal brief.
From a practical standpoint, Peltola’s current lead eclipses both of the Sullivans combined — a margin that allowed her to confidently declare victory, even though the race hasn’t officially been called — but the legal rationale for the government’s request is even worse.
“The relief sought—indefinitely blocking the certification of an ongoing U.S. Senate election and running an inquisition into individual voters’ true intentions—was and remains completely illegal,” the ACLU’s legal brief noted. “It would disenfranchise voters. It would violate the right to a secret ballot. It would deter people from exercising their franchise for fear of government interrogation.”
It’s also impossible to grant: Even if any court allowed police to interrogate voters about their intentions, such a search would be fruitless. Ballots are secret, and there is no way of ascertaining which citizens cast which votes.
The ACLU points out that there’s only one reason the federal government hasn’t yet abandoned this doomed appeal.
“Let us not mince words: This lawsuit was filed at the behest of President Trump,” the brief states. “In response to a question from the press about the filing of this litigation, President Trump stated unequivocally: ‘I’m the one that said do it.’ But the say-so — and the political purposes — of an executive official, no matter how powerful, are not the law. The desire of powerful officials to try to achieve some result through the legal process does not turn a frivolous legal argument into a colorable one.”
Representing a coalition of Alaska voters and rights groups, the ACLU asked the Ninth Circuit to sanction the lawyers who pursued the appeal — including the Trump Justice Department’s third-in-command Stanley Woodward.
Learn more about why this pending appeal shows how Trump’s attempted election interference has not ended in this video breakdown on Legal AF’s All Rise News playlist.
Paid subscribers can watch it — and other videos — ad-free below.
Other videos below the paywall:
* Ex-New Jersey AG Matt Platkin explains how Trump lost “MAGA’s own private law firm.”
* Trump’s lawsuit against the BBC advances — in the court of a friendly judge.
* Why Susie Wiles should brace for subpoenas from Congress.
