US federal judge dumps election lawsuit filed by Republicans against VP Mike Pence

A United States federal judge has tossed out a lawsuit filed by Republican congressman Louie Gohmert and other GOP lawmakers against Vice President Mike Pence, seeking to force the Senate chairman to block the certification of electoral votes in the US Congress on January 6. Judge Jeremy Kernodle, who is one of Donald Trump's appointees, ruled that Gohmert's lawsuit has "no standing" to establish Mike Pence has discretion over the count of electoral college votes during the Joint Session of Congress, of which he is a ceremonial head. 

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'Allow Pence to override Electoral Count Act'

Gohmert and a group of Arizona Republicans had sought the court to uphold the powers laid out in the US Constitution which according to them grant the Vice President the exclusive authority and sole discretion in determining which electoral votes to count. The lawsuit also asked the court to allow Pence to override the Electoral Count Act and grant him the authority to determine which slates of electors should be counted and which, if any, may not be counted.  

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Earlier, the Department of Justice, on behalf of Vice President Pence, had issued a request to the federal judge to reject the lawsuit filed by Republican lawmakers. However, the request did not specify whether Pence would interfere in the electoral college count on January 6. The recent lawsuit was one of the several filed by Trump and his allies since the November 3 election in an attempt to reverse the results. Trump is still refusing to concede defeat to Joe Biden, who has 306 electoral votes, way over the majority mark of 270 needed to win a presidential election in the US. 

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Republican congressman Josh Hawley earlier this week said that at least 140 GOP lawmakers are planning to vote against the electoral college count on January 6. "Somebody has to stand up. 74 million Americans are not going to be told their voices don’t matter," Hawley said in a tweet. However, even if the members of the US Congress vote against the electoral college count, it would only delay the certification of Biden's win by a few hours and not terminate it.

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