Wood tossed out of Court again

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger prevailed in another lawsuit seeking to overturn Georgia law in the weeks leading up to the January 5 Senate Runoffs. Judge Timothy Batten of the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Georgia ruled quickly that Lin Wood lacked standing and dismissed the case.  “Since day one, I have been committed to upholding Georgia law and providing secure and reliable elections in Georgia,” said Secretary Raffensperger. “Time and time again we have successfully fought off lawsuits from the right and the left looking to undermine rule of law in Georgia. The numerous baseless and frivolous lawsuits, funded by unsuspecting Georgians who are being duped by Wood, are just the latest in a long history of lawsuits to nowhere in Georgia.”  “This is not just a win for the Secretary of State’s office but for all conservatives who see the value in judicial restraint, regardless of the source of the claim,” said Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs.  Judge Batten ruled that, like in his previous lawsuits, Lin Wood “lacks standing to pursue his claims” and dismissed the case.  Among the reasons Wood’s lawsuit did not move forward, the Judge ruled that Wood’s claims were based on pure hypotheticals: “Allegations that harm is certainly impending or substantially likely must be ‘based on well-pleaded facts’ because courts ‘do not credit bald assertions that rest on mere supposition… Wood’s allegations show only the ‘‘possibility of future injury’ based on a series of events’…”  Batten further wrote that Wood’s claims of voter fraud through the use of Dominion Voting machines are “astonishingly speculative.”  The ruling noted that many of the flaws that undermined this suit also brought down Wood’s previous cases. The ruling highlights that the “Court has previously pointed out to Wood” that his claims “[are] precisely the kind of undifferentiated, generalized grievance about the conduct of government . . . [and] quite different from the sorts of injuries alleged by plaintiffs in voting rights cases where we have found standing.’” In a note, Batten pointed out that “this Court and the Eleventh Circuit recently concluded that Wood lacked standing to bring almost identical equal protection claims.”  Referencing the Georgia Republican Party’s suit making similar claims, Batten’s ruling notes that “Wood does not allege that Defendants—the Secretary of State and members of the election board— control the election processes which he seeks to enjoin. Accordingly, his alleged injury is not traceable to them and Defendants cannot provide him any redress.”