The Michigan Republican Party filed emergency motions with the U. S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals early on Tuesday, seeking a stay of a federal judge’s order that started a statewide presidential recount in Michigan on Monday and asking for an “en banc” review of that order by all the judges of the 6th Circuit in Cincinnati. As the DFP notes, normally, appeals go to a three-judge panel of the court. A stay from the 6th Circuit would halt the Michigan recount until appeals judges have a chance to review Monday’s order by U. S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith.
The question for the appeals court to consider, lawyers for the Michigan GOP said, is whether Green Party candidate Jill Stein is constitutionally entitled to a statewide recount “without any evidence that the election was affected … by fraud or other impropriety.” The party gave notice Monday it would appeal the ruling Goldsmith made after a rare Sunday hearing in Detroit. It’s not clear whether or how quickly the 6th Circuit will take up the case.
Goldsmith cited a threat that unless the recount started at noon Monday, there was a credible threat that Michigan votes would not be counted, because the recount would not be completed by Dec. 13 – a deadline set out in federal law that guarantees the electors Michigan certifies for the electoral college will be accepted by Congress.
Republicans argue Stein, as a fourth-place finisher to President-elect Donald Trump, has no grounds to request a costly recount, that she waited too long to request the recount, and that the federal courts shouldn’t be getting involved in a question of state law.
This post was published at Zero Hedge on Dec 6, 2016.
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