'Sleeper case' could severely weaken Trump efforts to undo an election loss in November

A long-dormant lawsuit seeking to limit Donald Trump's efforts to overturn a potential election loss has finally begun to show signs of life again.

The lawsuit was originally filed in the days following the 2020 election and has moved slowly through the federal courts in Washington, D.C., while an appeals court considered his claims of presidential immunity from civil lawsuits, but the plaintiffs recently asked to drop one of their demands in hopes of getting the case moving, reported CNN.

"The case could have enormous implications for this election and future ones," CNN reported. "The voters are asking a federal judge to put Trump, his campaign and the Republican National Committee under court supervision that would require them to seek pre-approval before 'engaging in any activities related to recounts, certifications, or similar post-election activities,' and to bar the defendants from intimidating voters, poll workers and other election officials."

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The lawsuit, Michigan Welfare Rights Organization v. Trump, is seeking court supervision of election-related activities and monetary damages from alleged violations around the 2020 election, but the plaintiffs have asked for permission to drop their demand for damages to avoid a protracted legal fight and revive the case that coincidentally landed before federal judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing Trump's election subversion trial.

The Republican Party has previously been under the same type of court-ordered supervision sought by this suit as part of a consent decree in place from the early 1980s until 2017 that prohibited it from engaging in tactics that could intimidate or discriminate against Black voters.

Black voters in Michigan say Trump and the RNC worked together four years ago to unlawfully disenfranchise them and other voters in areas with substantial Black populations by “disrupting vote counting efforts, lodging groundless challenges during recounts, and attempting to block certification of election results through intimidation and coercion of election officials and volunteers.”

The lawsuit alleges that the defendants violated both the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Ku Klux Klan Act, a Reconstruction-era law that allows for civil action against anyone who conspires to prevent participation in U.S. elections, but Trump and the RNC have asked for the case to be dismissed because, they argue, the conduct alleged amounts to protected political speech.

“This is simply a transparent attempt to quell political dissent and chill political speech,” a lawyer for Trump and his campaign wrote last year in a filing. “Even assuming all the allegations are true, President Trump and his Campaign engaged in simple and straightforward political speech during an important political dispute.”