Wisconsin Supreme Court rejects Trump lawsuit

The Wisconsin Supreme Court today rejected the lawsuit brought by President Trump in a 4-3 vote. Conservative court member Brian Hagedorn joined the 3 liberal justices on the court in rejecting the suit. 

This is a quickly-breaking story and will be updated.

Trump's lawsuit took aim at the election laws that were created by Republicans in the state, and the Republican-created Wisconsin Elections Commission. The suit sought to disenfranchise voters who voted early in the race, as well as those who declared themselves indefinitely confined. These were not new provisions to voting in Wisconsin, but have been established practices for years. The suit claimed that these provisions are illegal. The suit only applied to the two counties that the Trump campaign had recounted, Dane and Milwaukee Counties. 

The suit also demands that votes not be counted if election clerks filled in missing information on absentee ballots, which was allowed on the advice of the Wisconsin Elections Commission. Also included in the suit were all votes  that were cast in the "Democracy in the Park" event in Milwaukee. The plaintiffs believe that this event made the event in the park into a series of polling places that are illegal since ballots were collected in the process.

The court decision is attached below.

The decision by the court was at least partly based on state law, which requires that suits based on a recount must be filed in circuit court, and not filed directly with the Supreme Court. The decision allows the suit to be filed in the lower court, but the practicality of the situation is that time is very short. If the winner of the election in Wisconsin is not clarified by December 8, the so-called "safe-harbor date" there is a chance that the state's electors will not be counted in the Electoral College.

This is only one of a series of lawsuits regarding the Wisconsin election. A suit was filed in Federal Court late on Wednesday, demanding a response from the court within 48 hours. The suit alleges that Wisconsin law on absentee voting discriminates against able-bodied citizens, objects to the widespread use of absentee voting, and believes that the use of unmanned drop boxes for voting violates state law.  The complaint requests that the vote in the state be annulled completely, and that the Wisconsin vote be turned over to be decided by the GOP-dominated state legislature. 

In regard to the Federal suit, Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul stated "Not content to try to disenfranchise over 200,000 Wisconsinites in state court, the President is now asking a federal court to take Wisconsin’s choice for President away from voters and to give it to politicians,  Democracy doesn’t work that way. No matter how many lawsuits are filed, we’ll keep standing up for Wisconsin voters.”