ATLANTA — UPDATE: Wednesday evening, Lin Wood tweeted that the 11th Circuit granted his emergency motion for Expedited Review of the lawsuit.
It appears that Wood sees the appeals court’s latest filing as encouraging. Read his tweet here.
Original story below
The 11th Circuit federal appeals court in Atlanta appears unlikely to hear an appeal for a lawsuit which sought to stop Georgia from certifying its results and was dismissed last week.
The suit, brought by attorney Lin Wood - who famously represented Richard Jewell - had made the argument that Georgia's election was carried out unconstitutionally.
The 11th Circuit noted in a letter to Wood's attorney arguing the case, Ray S. Smith III, that "it appears this that this court may lack jurisdiction over this appeal" and that "if it is determined that this court is without jurisdiction, this appeal will be dismissed."
Wood was given until 9 a.m. next Tuesday to submit an argument on the jurisdictional question. The 11th Circuit most notably asked Wood to address "whether, and to what extent, any challenge to the denial of the requests for relief (in the lawsuit) is now moot."
That question seemed to indicate the 11th Circuit judges are wondering how they could provide the injunctive relief Wood originally sought - a restraining order stopping Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger from certifying results - now that the results have, in fact, been certified.
The central argument of Wood's lawsuit was that an agreement between Raffensperger and Democratic organizations in March, to settle lawsuits by the Democrats over how to apply signature matching rules, had unilaterally and unconstitutionally altered Georgia election law.
That agreement, a consent decree, has frequently been tweeted about by President Trump.
In addition to finding that Wood lacked standing and, if he ever had it to begin with, had eight months prior to the election to challenge the agreement, Judge Steven Grimberg of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia rejected the constitutional argument.
"Underscoring the exceptional nature of his requested relief, Wood’s claims go much further... he wants the rules for the already concluded election declared unconstitutional and over one million absentee ballots called into question," Judge Grimberg wrote. "Beyond merely causing confusion, Wood’s requested relief could disenfranchise a substantial portion of the electorate and erode the public’s confidence in the electoral process."