Court of Appeals rejects another Trump lawsuit over Michigan election

The Michigan Court of Appeals on Friday rejected an appeal from the Trump presidential campaign challenging Michigan’s election results, in the latest in a series of court defeats for the president.

In a 2-1 decision, the court chastised the campaign for dragging its feet on the appeal, said the certification of Michigan’s election results by the Board of State Canvassers in the interim had made the lawsuit moot, and said that if the Trump campaign wanted to challenge the results it could have requested a recount, but did not.

“Plaintiff failed to follow clear law in Michigan relative to such matters,” the court said.

Trump and his supporters have filed a series of lawsuits in battleground states around the country and in Michigan, where no judge has given credence to any of the claims.

The ruling upholds an earlier decision by Michigan Court of Claims Judge Cynthia Stephens, who said Nov. 5 there was no legal basis or evidence to grant what the campaign requested in a suit filed the day after the Nov. 3 election.

The Trump campaign tried to appeal that decision Nov. 6, but the “emergency” appeal was rejected because lawyers for the campaign did not file the required paperwork. They then did not correct the filing until Nov. 30. In the meantime, the Board of State Canvassers certified Michigan’s election results Nov. 23.

The campaign wanted an order directing Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson to require “meaningful access” for campaign poll watchers to the counting of state ballots, plus access to videotaped surveillance of ballot drop boxes installed around the state after Oct. 1. It had asked for a pause in ballot counting while the case was heard.

Even before the appeal, Stephens said the ballot counting in Michigan, which showed Democrat Joe Biden receiving about 150,000 more votes than Trump, was already completed, making the request moot.

Further, she said Benson already had issued a directive for meaningful access for poll watchers at local ballot counting places, which made special allowances to get around coronavirus social distancing requirements when needed. As for the videotapes, Stephens said there is no legal basis for Benson to provide — or be expected to provide — access to video surveillance of ballot drop boxes installed by local officials, who were not named as defendants in the suit.

In Friday’s decision denying the appeal, Judge Patrick Meter dissented, saying the “issues are not moot because state electors have not yet been seated, the Electoral College has not yet been assembled, and Congress has not yet convened” to consider the matter.

The Electoral College convenes in state capitals around the nation Dec. 14.

But Judges Stephen Borrello and Amy Ronayne Krause said the assertions in Meter’s dissent “are not supported by law or by fact.” Trump’s legal recourse once Michigan’s results were certified was to request a recount, they said.

Borrello and Krause were appointed to the court by former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, a Democrat. Meter was appointed by former Republican Gov. John Engler.

There was no immediate word from the Trump campaign on a possible appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court.