Appeals court finds arguments presented by lawyers of incumbent president unconvincing
Hosted in Chicago, Illinois, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit rejected Thursday a lawsuit filed by incumbent President Donald Trump’s legal team seeking a review of Wisconsin’s presidential election results. The court, which hears cases from Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin, found the arguments presented by Trump’s lawyers unconvincing, Politico reported.
All three judges of the Court of Appeals rejected arguments that the Wisconsin Election Commission allegedly violated the US Constitution, particularly in collecting absentee ballots. Expressing the general opinion of his colleagues, Justice Michael Scudder said that the changes in question were not so substantial as to contravene constitutional requirements for the organisation and conduct of presidential elections. The court thus upheld the results of the presidential election held there, which was won by the Democratic candidate Joseph Biden, as approved by the state authorities.
“President [Trump] had every opportunity before the election to challenge Wisconsin’s legislation by submitting similar statements to the current ones. Having given up that opportunity, he cannot now – after the final approval of the election results – attempt to challenge [state law]”, – the publication quoted Scudder as saying.
Politico noted that the loss of the Wisconsin case was another of the many legal defeats for Trump’s legal team trying to challenge election results in the so-called swing states, where Biden won by a narrow margin. The newspaper highlighted that all three Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals judges are “Republican appointees” and therefore could not have been biased to hear the lawsuit filed on behalf of Republican Trump.