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You are here: Home / 2024 Activism / The Feds may stop the rig against Riggs

The Feds may stop the rig against Riggs

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There is one last substantial election that has yet to be finalized from last November.  North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs (D) squeaked out a 700+ vote win to retain her seat on the bench.  The Republican candidate sued on the “I’m sad that I am a loser” cause of action and tried to get 60,000+ votes thrown out on the basis that they likely disproportionally voted for his opponent.  The state courts were somewhat down with this.

A Federal judge was not:

 

BREAKING: U.S. District Court Judge Richard Myers orders the NC State Board of Elections to certify a 734-vote win for Democratic Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs and rejects all of Griffin’s election protests. Judge stays order for one week so Griffin may appeal. #ncpol

[image or embed]

— Bryan Anderson (@bryanranderson.bsky.social) May 5, 2025 at 6:52 PM

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41Comments

  1. 1.

    cmorenc

    Interesting that Judge Myers was nominated by Trump in 2019, during Trump’s first term, and confirmed by the Senate by 72-22.  That’s going to make it much harder for the NC GOP to convincingly play the “liberal biased judge” card.  BONUS: Myers is a member of the Federalist Society!  At least in this situation that’s a huge bonus toward the probability that his ruling will stick.

  5. 5.

    RevRick

    The judge had three main points. One, it violated due process by changing the rules after the fact. Two, it violated equal protection by creating an arbitrary class. Three, it placed an undue burden on the right to vote.

    I think even the Supreme Court would have a hard time deciding against this ruling.

  7. 7.

    gratuitous

    @RevRick: That first point is what occurred to me, reading the outline of the case: Change the rules after the result wasn’t to the loser’s liking. Classic Republican whine.

  8. 8.

    prostratedragon

    and tried to get 60,000+ votes thrown out on the basis that they likely disproportionally voted for his opponent.

    Sometimes you just have to stop and stare for a moment.

  9. 9.

    prostratedragon

    Also in federal court:

    New York City has joined a coalition of eight local governments around the country suing the Trump Administration over what the cities say are unlawful strings attached to federal housing dollars.

    Needless to say, the “strings” concern DEI policies.

    More details:

    The plaintiffs include three counties in Washington state — Martin Luther King, Jr., Pierce and Snohomish — as well as San Francisco County and Santa Clara County in California and the cities of Boston, Columbus and New York.

  10. 10.

    cmorenc

    @NobodySpecial: Indeed – see Bush v Gore, but with a much more pronounced partisan lean and lessened respect for precedent @SCOTUS in 2025 than in 2000.  Nevertheless, with a state SCt rather than federal SCOTUS or Presidential result at stake, and with a decision upholding Riggs win only resulting in a 5-2 rather than 6-1 GOP majority on the NC SCt, Roberts + at least one other RE SCOTUS justice may decide that a decision upholding Riggs win is a tactically worthwhile sacrifice toward improving the public respect for SCOTUS, the better to reinforce it ahead of other hard-right-leaning decisions to come on more consequential matters.

  12. 12.

    Jackie

    @prostratedragon: 

    and tried to get 60,000+ votes thrown out on the basis that they likely disproportionally voted for his opponent.

    Sometimes you just have to stop and stare for a moment.

    Trumpism

  15. 15.

    Jackie

    @Jackie: I stand corrected: According to Wikipedia

    On April 19, 2005, a significant change occurred in the history of King County, Washington.

    Governor Christine Gregoire signed into law Senate Bill 5332, officially renaming King County in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

  16. 16.

    prostratedragon

    @Wapiti:  That was news to me too. Per wikipedia, happened by amendment in 2005; the county had long been named for another King. The county logo now is an image of Dr. King.

  17. 17.

    prostratedragon

    On another topic, these NBA quarterfinal games so far are humdingers.

  18. 18.

    prostratedragon

    Wow

    NEW: GlobalX, the company doing many deportation flights for ICE, has been hacked. Hackers claim to have stolen flight manifest information and flight details, and have also defaced the website

    https://www.404media.co/globalx-airline-for-trumps-deportations-hacked/

    Hacker obtained what they say is flight manifest and passenger data. What we’ve gone through so far aligns closely with real, confirmed info we know about deportation flights, but there’s a lot of sensitive personal info in there and a lot of data in general. We are still going through it.

  19. 19.

    Jackie

    Why FFOTUS made his bizarre Alcatraz declaration? Maybe this:

    Deadline: “Clint Eastwood’s 1979 classic Escape From Alcatraz was shown on a South Florida PBS station the night before.”

    “Trump was at Mar-a-Lago for most of the weekend.”

    I can totally see this: Not only is FFOTUS influenced by the last word whispered in his ear; he’s also influenced by the last movie he watched.

  21. 21.

    JaySinWA

    Is Bryan Anderson any relation to David Anderson? Or perhaps Richard Mayhew?

  22. 22.

    Jay

    So, the grievance monkeys that are Danielle Smith’s (Premier of Alberta) UCP dropped their  “Sovereignty” legislation today. (Wexit).

    Indigenous Nations, Treaty #3, #4. #5, #6, #7, #8, #9 filed an injunction with the Canadian Supreme Court which was accepted, all those treaties pre-exist Alberta.

    Under law, a half dozen of Alberta municipalities would be allowed to separate.

    And 98% of Alberta’s resources would come under the control of the Indigenous peoples.

    MAGgot’s are morons.

  25. 25.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @lowtechcyclist: Yeah that’s bizarre. Like what possible legal purpose could that serve? I’m sure plenty of the Feds involved care about the issue but in the end you work on the projects you’re assigned to. A lot of the time it’s just the luck of the draw. And there’s no reason to give that info to an organization that’s wholly outside of my Federal government.

  26. 26.

    prostratedragon

    @lowtechcyclist:

    Shoulder angels. In Socrates’s model of the concept there’s a charioteer driving a cart pulled by a good horse, with a bad horse interfering. Here we seem to have a bad horse with two struggling shoulder angels.

    Elsewhere in vaccine management, autogyro edition,

    NEWS: Trump’s HHS announced it’ll invest $500 million in a new flu vaccine under development by two RFK Jr.-favored scientists at NIH. The unproven shot is based on technology abandoned in the seventies, puzzling other scientists.

    Via @kffhealthnews.org

    https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/trump-hhs-rfk-flu-vaccine-nih-grant-taubenberger/

  27. 27.

    AM in NC

    @cmorenc:  Thank FSM for this.  No way the corrupt state SC acts as anything other than partisan hacks.  And no way the newly-formed GOP-majority state Board of Elections would do the legal/moral thing and certify the actual winner if not for being forced to by the Feds.

    As I know you know, it’s step one (of many) in reclaiming the NC Supreme Court and un-rigging our elections for the future. Onward to 2028!!!!!

    And, as you note, the fact that this judge is a FedSoc hack (because if you’re FedSoc, you are definitionally a hack) should hopefully make it harder for this to be undone.  The odious Griffin has one week to appeal, but with a ruling like this (and people like PatMcCrory coming out against him) hopefully he’ll stop this fuckery.

  28. 28.

    lowtechcyclist

    @What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: ​
     

    Turnabout’s fair play: the judges on the Fifth Circuit who voted to release the names and email addresses of these Federal employees should have their contact information made public.

    I’m against doxxing, but these judges have earned it.

    If the Supreme Court upholds this (or even just denies cert), then no Federal worker is safe from being doxxed by a court because somebody doesn’t like the project they worked on. If I were still working, I’d be a lot more nervous than I already might’ve been.

  29. 29.

    prostratedragon

    Caution: diplomat at work:

    Lutnick shits on Canada ahead of tomorrow’s meeting: “They have basically been feeding off of us for decades upon decades upon decades. They have their socialist regime and it’s basically feeding off of America…why do we do our films in Canada? C’mon!.. I just don’t see how it works out perfectly”

    At this rate, count it a win if they don’t atyack us.

  30. 30.

    lowtechcyclist

    @prostratedragon:

    Shoulder angels. In Socrates’s model of the concept there’s a charioteer driving a cart pulled by a good horse, with a bad horse interfering. Here we seem to have a bad horse with two struggling shoulder angels.

    I’m familiar with the concept, just not sure what it has to do with the 5th Circuit.

  32. 32.

    lowtechcyclist

    @prostratedragon: ​
     

    At this rate, count it a win if they don’t atyack us.

    Here’s an idea for the next time a Democrat is President: have a whole bunch of kabuki war threats between the Canadian PM and the U.S. President, then a totally meaningless ‘invasion’ by a few thousand Canadian troops into NE Montana, and a peace treaty where the President cedes the Dakotas, Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming to Canada in return for peace. The GOP loses 10 U.S. Senate seats. Sounds like a win to me!

  34. 34.

    prostratedragon

    Having gone there for a simple phoyo op and ened up syanding there while he rambled about Alcatraz, self-deportations, and dressing up like a pope,
    this finally broke it for the NFL commissioner and the mayor of DC:

    REPORTER: What’s your expectation for your meeting with the Canadian prime minster tomorrow?

    TRUMP: I’m not sure what he wants to see me about but I guess he wants to make a deal.

  36. 36.

    Baud

    @MagdaInBlack:

    I’m there. I’m actually pretty amazed by people who can stay in a constant state of shock about what Trump says or does.

    Besides, it’s clear he enjoys rattling decent folks. His fans enjoy it too.

  37. 37.

    p.a.

    @Baud: His fans enjoy it too.

     

     

    I’ve sure as hell noted that in all their “fuck due process” comments, but when I note they would be the people ratting out Anne Frank’s family they never respond.  I wonder what percentage have to google Anne Frank…

  38. 38.

    chemiclord

    @prostratedragon: “Now, of course, if this information had included a bunch of white people, we’d be incandescent with rage and sharing all these names with the entire world in our shrieks of fury.”

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