Nevada Establishes Public Forgery Exemption
Election integrity achieved a major procedural advance Thursday when Nevada Judge Mary Kay Holthus dismissed charges against six Republicans accused of signing a certificate awarding Donald Trump the state’s electoral votes after Joe Biden won Nevada by more than 30,000 votes. Holthus cited insufficient evidence of an intent to deceive and said prosecutors failed to present exculpatory evidence to the grand jury, thereby confirming the nation’s oldest unwritten legal doctrine: A false document becomes political expression when signed outdoors by people wearing serious faces.
Nevada Republican Party Chair Michael McDonald and former Clark County GOP Chair Jesse Law were among those accused of producing the alternate certificate. Because the signing ceremony was recorded and posted online, the document qualified under the expanding “we did it on camera” exemption, which protects conduct too openly brazen to be mistaken for wrongdoing. Trump praised the decision with his customary command of constitutional law. “These were the real electors, very beautiful and official, and everyone knows a document cannot be false when Republicans sign it confidently in public,” Trump said. “That is transparency, probably more transparency than the Constitution ever required, and frankly the Founders would have loved the video.”
Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford plans to appeal, relying on the obsolete theory that sending officials a document designed to look official may indicate a desire for officials to treat it as official. The ruling nevertheless gives ordinary Americans useful guidance. Residents may now prepare their own building permits, professional licenses, tax refunds, college diplomas and gubernatorial appointments, provided they livestream the signing and later describe the paperwork as ceremonial. Banks are expected to adopt the same standard for handwritten checks labeled “alternate currency,” while airports will recognize passenger-issued pilot credentials accompanied by sufficiently confident press conferences. Nevada has thus secured its elections by establishing that attempted deception is legally impossible whenever the participants announce it in advance.
* None of the quotes in this article were spoken by an actual person. More info.