U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Wisconsin ‘Kraken’ Suit

The U.S. Supreme Court has denied yet another attempt to overturn the results of the November 2020 presidential election in Wisconsin.

The country’s highest court today simply denied a writ of mandamus that would have required a lower federal court to take action on the case. That effectively killed the case.

The suit was brought against the Wisconsin Elections Commission and its members as well as Governor Tony Evers.

In December, a federal judge for the U.S. Eastern District of Wisconsin dismissed the lawsuit. U.S. District Judge Pamela Pepper dismissed the case on the grounds that the court lacked standing under the constitution to overrule the state election. She said the legal question posed by the suit was simple. “Federal courts have limited jurisdiction. Does a federal court have the jurisdiction and authority to grant the relief this lawsuit seeks? The answer is no.”

The case was part of a slew of lawsuits brought, in part, by Texas attorney Sidney Powell. These lawsuits were part of a nationwide campaign brought after the election by former President Donald Trump’s campaign and its allies to use the courts to overturn the electoral outcome. Powell famously went on Fox Business and said she would “release the Kraken,” referring to the deluge of suits she was about to file.

The lawsuit made wild allegations of voter fraud, claiming “the unlawful counting, or fabrication, of hundreds of thousands of illegal, ineligible, duplicate or purely fictitious ballots in the State of Wisconsin” occurred in a number of municipalities and counties and “at the direction of Wisconsin state election officials.”

The suit included the infamous allegation that Dominion Voting Systems, a producer of voting hardware and software, is owned “by foreign oligarchs and Dictators.” Specifically, the suit alleged that Dominion was created “to ensure computerized ballot-stuffing and vote manipulation to whatever level was needed to make certain Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez never lost another election.” There is no truth to the accusation. 

Dominion machines were not used in the City of Milwaukee, Milwaukee County or Dane County, Democratic strongholds targeted by the Trump Campaign for a recount, and singled out in the suit, which also named La Crosse County, Waukesha County, St. Croix County, Washington County, Bayfield County and Ozaukee County, most of which were won by Trump.

The allegations concerning Dominion have led the company to file defamation lawsuits against Powell and others seeking billions in damages. Powell alone is being sued for $1.3 billion.

The suits filed by Powell in Wisconsin were also riddled with simple mistakes. For example, in Wisconsin, the suit demanded the court provide video surveillance footage from the TCF Center, which is in Detroit Michigan.

Powell brought the suit on behalf of William Feehan and Derrick Van Orden. Feehan is a Republican from La Crosse who ran for State Senate in 2012 and lost. Van Orden was a Republican candidate for U.S. representative from the state’s third district in the 2020 election. He lost to Democratic incumbent Ron Kind.

Van Orden later told WisPolitics reporter JR Ross that he was named as a plaintiff in the suit without his permission and that he only learned the suit was being filed in his name through social media.

Powell was joined in filing the suit by New York attorney Howard Kleinhendler, and local attorneys Michael D. Dean of Brookfield and Daniel J. Eastman of Mequon.

This is the latest in a long string of defeats for lawsuits brought by the former president and his allies that sought to overturn the results of the 2020 election. See Urban Milwaukee’s coverage of the post election legal battles here.