Victory in North Carolina
Resistance matters.
Resistance yields results.
Every lawsuit, every protest sign, every call to your legislator at every level of government.
They all add up to playing a role in victories like the one we have in North Carolina, where this morning Jefferson Griffin has finally conceded last November’s state supreme court election to rightful victor Allison Riggs.
By now you’re familiar with the facts: Riggs won the election by around 600 votes, but Griffen tried to retroactively change the laws after the votes have been cast to cancel over 65,000 votes and steal the election. For months, he refused to concede while his desperate, election-denying challenges ping-ponged through the courts.
This week, a Trump-appointed federal judge dealt Griffin a near-definitive loss, and Griffin finally conceded!
For legal nerds in the audience, the language of Judge Myers’ ruling was notable:
IT IS ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED that the 1. Retroactive invalidation of absentee ballots cast by overseas military and civilian voters violates those voters’ substantive due process rights; 2. The cure process violates the equal protection rights of overseas military and civilian voters; and 3. The lack of any notice or opportunity for eligible voters to contest their mistaken designation as Never Residents violates procedural due process and represents an unconstitutional burden on the right to vote
Plainly stated: the law doesn’t allow candidates to change the rules after the game has been played in order to deny the results of the election.
In my view, Trump’s weakened position made it easier for Myers to issue this ruling. Pro-democracy groups have filed over 200 lawsuits against Trump’s power grabs since he took office. One statistic I heard last week said that around 130 of them have already been successful in halting his executive orders, illegal firings, and other moves. Add to that his historically weak poll numbers and massive public protests every few weeks and you have an environment where it’s much easier for judges he appointed to hold him accountable than if no one was standing up to him.
Resistance matters.