I'm not "knowledged" on court procedure, but is evidence presented in a hearing, and were these hearings, or some other legal procedure? Is not the initial objective to induce a judge to hear evidence at a later time?
I'd have to read each lawsuit to determine which claims are made in which suit, and TX v PA enumerates all of them, to my knowledge.
Generally speaking..
So you file a lawsuit (i.e. a complaint)... you can of course sue anyone for anything, but if your complaint doesn't state a claim for relief that the court can grant, or doesn't otherwise state elements of a claim, your opponent can file a motion to dismiss it.
For example, if you sue someone for fraud, you have to include every element of fraud in the complaint (and those vary from state-to-state), and any evidence needed to support that element, or otherwise adequate explanations for the court of where that evidence could be found if you don't have it. If your complaint doesn't include every element, upon motion from your opponent, the judge would dismiss it.
Bad lawyers, i.e.
the only kind that will file these complaints for Trump, get their shit dismissed all the time, because they're either too incompetent to put together a complaint that will pass muster, or are just taking a client's money, and not telling the client up front they don't have a case.
There are three main different types of dismissal:
- Voluntary dismissal= "oops I fucked up. Let me dismiss that myself and re-file."
- Dismissal w/out prejudice = judge says your complaint fails to include some required element, but you can fix it and re-file; could also be called "dimissal w/leave to amend" or something like that. either way, it's not completely final.
- Dismissal w/prejudice = you cannot re-file this claim. The judge basically swats it out of the court, like Dikembe Mutumbo blocking a shot, and you go on the internet and write that the judge just hates you and is totally biased.
Some evidence is often required to be attached to the complaint; for example, if you sue for breach of contract, you usually have to attach a copy of the contract to the complaint. I assume that's the case for some of these voter fraud complaints.
When they're getting dismissed outright, I assume either they're stating something that the court can't grant relief on, like "
Moshun to maike Trump teh Presuhdent bye Tomoro," or they're otherwise not stating elements of a claim correctly, or they're not attaching evidence, or attaching evidence that doesn't actually show vote or procedural errors or fraud.
Some of the errors in some of these I've seen other lawyers tweet about are hilarious. That could be a whole separate thread here. Some of "affidavits" don't actually show fraud... I saw one get picked apart, and when they detailed why people claimed fraud occurred, it was stuff like "
The election judges looked at me funny" or "
I saw liberals sitting outside the polling station in a Prius and it was suspicious"
If the complaint survives a motion to dismiss, then yes, there might be evidentiary hearings where a judge would rule whether certain evidence is admissable... before ultimately a trial would be held before a judge (i.e. a bench trial) or jury, to resolve factual disputes.
Oh man, lawyers are so great!
