TRUMP LOSES CASE IN WIS. WHILE ANOTHER ONE IS ARGUED

President Donald Trump lost a federal lawsuit Saturday while his attorney was arguing his case before a skeptical Wisconsin Supreme Court in another lawsuit that liberal justices said “smacks of racism” and would disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of voters only in the state’s most diverse counties.

U.S. District Judge Brett Ludwig, a Trump appointee, dismissed Trump’s federal lawsuit asking the court to order the Republican-controlled Legislature to name Trump the winner over Democrat Joe Biden. The judge said Trump’s arguments “fail as a matter of law and fact.”

The ruling came as Trump attorney Jim Troupis faced questions about his claims from both liberal and conservative justices on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Troupis asked the court to toss more than 221,000 absentee ballots, including his own, saying they were cast fraudulently based on incorrect interpretations of the law by elections officials.

Conservative justices appeared to be sympathetic to some issues raised by Trump, but also questioned how they could fairly disqualify ballots only in the two counties where Trump sought a recount and not other counties where the same procedures were followed.

Biden attorney John Devaney said tossing any ballots in just those two counties would be a violation of the Constitution’s equal protection clause. Trump is challenging ballots in Milwaukee and Dane counties, the state’s most liberal counties with the largest nonwhite populations. He is not challenging votes in counties he won.

“This lawsuit, Mr. Troupis, smacks of racism,” liberal Justice Jill Karofsky said. “I do not know how you can come before this court and possibly ask for a remedy that is unheard of in U.S. history.”

Biden’s attorney asked the court to rule before Monday, when the Electoral College votes are scheduled to be cast.