House Speaker Mike Johnson says that he or other Republicans may sue the Democratic Party over its decision to endorse Kamala Harris following President Joe Biden's decision to exit the presidential race.
Johnson and other GOP members are accusing the Democratic Party of disenfranchising voters who selected President Biden to be their nominee. Legal analysts, however, question if such lawsuits would hold water.
"Not in a Louisiana court," Loyola University law professor Dane Ciolino said when asked if a suit such as the one Johnson proposed would have merit. "Under the Louisiana election code, nominations for presidential electors is made by the political parties."
Ciolino added that other states' laws are similar to Louisiana's.
"Most, if not all, the states defer to the process chosen by the political parties to choose their nominees for president," Ciolino said. "Joe Biden has not accepted the nomination of the Democratic Party, and as a result, when the convention happens and a candidate is chosen, that's the candidate that will be sent to the states."
WWL All Things Legal host Doug Sunseri says that Republican leaders who try to challenged Harris's candidacy at the state level will face another problem.
"I would see that the biggest problem that the Republicans would have is they may not have standing to make these lawsuits--in other words, they might not be an interested party," Sunseri said. "If you had some Democratic voters who were plaintiffs out front on this, they could make the argument that they're being denied their due process as per the Democratic Party's rules."
Sunseri notes that there is a lack of precedent in issues like this. That, he says, could help or hurt Republicans who seek to keep Harris off the ballot.
"When you're dealing with unchartered territory, you don't have any precedent," Sunseri said. "From a legal standpoint, it's probably an uphill climb."
