BREAKING: Republican Delegates Make POWER MOVE Overnight To Ruin Trump – Already Spelling Trouble…
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I’m not a Constitutional attorney, but this could definitely spell trouble for Trump. One of Virginia’s delegates to the Republican National Convention has filed a federal lawsuit in an effort to not vote for Donald Trump at the party convention next month. He intends to vote his conscious even in the face of threatened litigation by Trump. The delegate, Carroll Correll Jr. of Winchester, Virginia, argues in the suit that being forced to vote against his conscience is a violation of his constitutional rights. Correll says he will not vote for Trump because he believes the billionaire businessman is unfit to serve as president. 60% to 70% of the Republican Party feels the same way. Correll’s suit maintains that state law imposes criminal penalties on delegates who don’t vote on the first ballot for the winner of the state’s Republican and Democratic primaries. Correll filed the suit Friday in federal court in Richmond. He seeks a judgment on behalf of all delegates to the Republican and Democratic conventions.
From Young Conservatives:
A Virginia delegate to the Republican National Convention filed a class action lawsuit in federal court Friday challenging a state law that binds delegates to support the primary winner at the nominating convention.
The outcome of the lawsuit could have significant implications for Donald Trump’s nomination, as it will be a test case of a key argument being pushed by some Trump opponents who want to see him stopped at a contested convention.
They argue that state laws requiring delegates to vote for a specific candidate are unconstitutional, on the grounds that they violate the First Amendment’s protection of the right to assemble — and that delegates to the national convention should be allowed to vote for whomever they please.
Beau Correll, a Republican National Convention delegate who served as one of Cruz’s campaign co-chairs in Virginia’s 10th district, is the only named plaintiff in the suit, but he’s filed it on behalf of Virginia’s 49 Republican and 110 Democratic delegates. It challenges a Virginia law that states: “Delegates and alternates shall be bound to vote on the first ballot at the national convention for the candidate receiving the most votes in the primary unless that candidate releases those delegates and alternates from such vote.”
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The complaint reads: “The First Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees delegates to the Republican Party’s and Democratic Party’s national conventions the right to vote their conscience, free from government compulsion, when participating in the selection of their party’s presidential nominee. Nonetheless, Virginia law acts to strip them of that right, imposing criminal penalties on delegates who vote for anyone other than the primary winner on the first ballot at a national convention. That law cannot be sustained under the First Amendment or as a legitimate exercise of Virginia’s authority under the United States Constitution.”
Virginia Republican Party rules actually conflict with the state statute — they allocate their 49 delegates proportionally. But Correll’s attorneys write in the complaint that he’s concerned, because Trump “is known to be litigious and has…brought lawsuits of questionable merit against persons for the apparent purpose of harassing or punishing them,” that Trump could use the state statute to prosecute Correll for voting against him.
“Based on these reports, Correll is concerned that voting against Trump at the convention may subject him to retaliatory litigation by Trump, Trump’s campaign, or other persons or entities associated with Trump, based in part on Section 545(D),” the complaint reads.
Although I cheer the effort, I’m not sure this will succeed. Delegates are supposedly chosen by the vote of the people in that state. At the national level, I believe the GOP is free to change its rules and choose an alternative candidate if they feel the nominee is not fit for the office. This of course will cause an uprising and unrest. I personally don’t believe that the majority of conservatives want anything to do with Trump really… most just fear Clinton more and that is a crappy and possibly catastrophic way to select a candidate. If Trump becomes the nominee, I no longer believe he will win. Clinton leads him by double digits in the latest Reuters poll and he’s tanking. This is an unmitigated disaster for the Republicans. This is why we don’t win elections… we can’t seem to pick the right candidate.
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