In a recent ruling, two Republican judges dismissed a bid from three co-defendants of former President Donald Trump in the Fulton County, Georgia election interference case to relocate their cases to federal court.
On Thursday, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against former Georgia GOP Chair David Shafer, state Senator Shawn Still, and former Coffee County GOP Chair Cathleen Latham in a unanimous 3-0 decision. The panel included Chief Judge William Pryor and Circuit Judges Robin Rosenbaum and Britt Grant, with Pryor and Grant being appointed by Republican presidents—George W. Bush and Trump, respectively—while Rosenbaum was appointed by Democratic President Barack Obama.
The three co-defendants contended that, as nominated presidential electors in the 2020 election, they were federal officers entitled to remove their cases to federal court. However, the judges disagreed, stating, “Even if Shafer, Still, and Latham were federal officers in 2020 when they were nominated, they would not be current federal officers.”
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This ruling aligns with previous decisions, including one regarding former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who is also a co-defendant in the Fulton County case and is currently appealing to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court is set to discuss Meadows’ case next month.
Judge Grant wrote separately to express her belief that the court’s earlier precedent was faulty but felt compelled to rule according to it. She suggested the district court should have examined whether Shafer was ever considered a federal officer.
Judge Rosenbaum added her own views in a concurring opinion, stressing that the defendants were not recognized as presidential electors under both the Constitution and Georgia law, as they were not voted into those positions by the people of Georgia. She emphasized that even legitimate presidential electors do not qualify as officers of the United States according to the federal-officer removal statute.
In conclusion, Rosenbaum affirmed that the three defendants do not qualify for the federal officer statute due to three fundamental reasons: they are not currently federal officers, they were not the elected Georgia presidential electors, and if they were pretended to be electors, they remain non-federal officers.