Letters

Last week, Congressman Lee Zeldin joined almost two-thirds of House Republicans in support of the recently dismissed Texas lawsuit seeking to invalidate millions of votes in the battleground states won by Joseph Biden.

The GOP signators are telling us that final decisions of voters can be challenged without a basis in fact if the results are not to their liking. This astounding proposition suggests that an individual state should have standing to challenge millions of votes in another state — a concept the Supreme Court dismissed within moments of reviewing the briefs.

Notably, it appears the Republican concept of “states’ rights” is not significant enough to override the desire to invalidate millions of votes in another state, as the motivation appears to be fear of incurring the wrath of Donald Trump and not the rule of law.

Make no mistake, what Congressman Zeldin has done by signing on to this specious lawsuit was no less than a brazen attempt to disenfranchise millions of voters, a concept that carries a logical inconsistency in that all of these Republicans, like Lee Zeldin, were reelected on the same allegedly invalid ballots.

“This is so much bigger than this year’s presidential race. … Election laws and state constitutions were blatantly ignored by certain officials to tilt an election in a different direction,” says Congressman Zeldin. This statement is unequivocally false. It demonstrates a complete misreading of the U.S. Constitution’s electors clause and depends on the completely meritless claims of voter fraud.

Notably, in the Pennsylvania case, the Appeals Court stated: “Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here.” In most, if not all, of the dozens of dismissed cases, the Trump lawyers withdrew the fraud claims, as they had no proof. This has been validated by Attorney General William Barr, who, even as a Trump loyalist, has proclaimed the lack of evidence of fraud in the presidential election.

It should be clear to every constituent of the 1st Congressional District that Congressman Zeldin’s act of signing on to this legally meritless Texas lawsuit is an affront to all of us. It is the perpetuation of a lie that continues to divide us and constitutes an offense to the Constitution that will leave an indelible stain.

The good news is that our judicial institutions have held up to this attack. Nothing is more sacred than that the rule of law doesn’t break under this assault — an assault for which Congressman Zeldin bears a heavy responsibility. His knowingly false declarations about these issues undermine the very foundation of our society and create a friendly environment for the anti-democratic forces in America.

This not only violates his duty as a lawyer, it is profoundly un-American.

Peter Mayer

Riverhead

Mr. Mayer is an attorney who served for 12 years as a New York State Supreme Court justice — Ed.