This article arises from the same common nucleus of operative facts, so to speak, out of which an earlier article published today also arises.
Recently filed elections cases have also caused me to wonder about Federal jurisdiction.
Are the plaintiffs in these elections cases asking Federal Judges to be activists and preempt the jurisdiction of State Courts over State Election Laws? That seems to be the gist of the lawsuits I have seen reported to date.
There was a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Texas, in which the same person or group of people reportedly filed the same lawsuit they had already lost in the Texas Supreme Court. Each time the lawsuit challenged the legality of drive-through voting in Harris County (Houston).
Isn't the issue of legality of drive-through voting a matter for the Texas State Courts to decide?
Parenthetically, I understand that the same person or group of people who lost their case in the Texas Supreme Court also lost their case in the U.S. District Court and then they lost again in the Federal Appellate Court.
Different people have filed their own lawsuits which are basically one lawsuit as well, but these people have filed in different States, all in Federal Court. They have so far filed their lawsuit in Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
The same losing candidate's campaign organization has reportedly filed three times, once in each of three Federal Courts. It is confusing. Apparently two of these same lawsuits were filed to stop counting votes and the third was filed for a re-count.
Isn't the issue of applying State Election Law an issue for State Court Judges to decide?
I am going to look into the jurisdictional basis if any for asking Federal Courts to preemptively and actively exercise jurisdiction so as to impose their own views of local Election Law in these States. As I wrote today in the earlier article also arising out of these developments, let's all of us keep an eye on the lawsuits being filed, and on who files them and who pays for them.
Assessing "bad faith" attorney's fees and sanctions, along with many situations requiring good faith and fair dealing, are discussed in § 2:7 in 1 Dennis J. Wall, Litigation and Prevention of Insurer Bad Faith (3d ed. and 2020 Supps. Thomson Reuters West). Attorney's fees awarded in a variety of cases are the subject of §§ 13:12 -13:14 in Volume 2, id.
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