Maybe I should get around to filing that lawsuit.
UPDATE: After flirting with the more obscure solutions, Judge Hanen decided to kick the case on standing — which makes sense since there was nothing approximating a harm to the plaintiffs.
As the 2020 election marches from ballot boxes to FedSoc robing rooms around the countries, scores of non-lawyer Americans are getting a crash course in civil procedure. Or whatever remains of civil procedure now that the Supreme Court has signaled a willingness to blow up state supreme court opinions based on purely state constitutional claims. It might just be anarchy dressed in legalese at this point.
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But I’ll bet you never thought you’d have to explain the doctrine of laches to your neighbors before this election was over.
Republicans are trying to convince Judge Andrew Hanen to toss approximately 127K ballots cast in Houston despite the Texas supreme court already definitively telling the Republicans to go Jeffrey Toobin themselves. That should be the end of this inquiry, but it’s 2020 and Leonard Leo didn’t spend all that money buying the federal judiciary for nothing. So the GOP is asking Judge Hanen — one of the most stridently right-wing and kind of bonkers judges in the federal system — to take the U.S. Supreme Court’s invitation and trample state courts for the sake of the election.
But at the argument, Judge Hanen seems less than convinced.
Hanen asking plaintiffs' attorneys: "Didn't we test this in the primaries this summer?"
Drive-through voting has "been going on for two weeks," Hanen said. "Why am I just getting this case?"#texas #election2020 #houston
— Ernest Scheyder (@ErnestScheyder) November 2, 2020
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Laches, that concept you learned as a 1L and promptly forgot because it never made a mark on your life ever again, may be about to have a moment. If you went into transactional work and fully exorcised litigation from your brain, it’s the “unreasonable delay in making an assertion or claim.” Judge Hanen hasn’t ruled or anything, but these questions augur well for a legal concept deep cut.
Some Above the Law Twitter team-up action:
IF THIS TURNS ON LACHES I'M GOING TO SQUEL LIKE A KID WHO JUST SAW A UNICORN POOP ICE CREAM
— Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC) November 2, 2020
I certainly didn’t see laches coming when 2020 began. I’m still hoping to get a clean hands doctrine shout out before the election week is over.
But enough about Toobin.
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.