On December 27, 2020, seeking to change results expected from counting of electoral votes required to take place on January 6, 2021, Texas Representative Louie Gohmert and several Arizona Republicans filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court seeking a declaration that the Electoral Count Act was unconstitutional and that Vice President Pence had the full freedom to reject any and all electoral vote certificates unilaterally, with no recourse to appeal by either House of Congress. The Justice Department, representing Pence in his official capacity, responded with an argument that the issues raised by the suit should be addressed to the House and Senate, not to the Vice President; not doing so, the department said, represented a "walking legal contradiction" as Gohmert was suing the person whose power he sought to further. In an amicus brief, the House of Representatives concurred. On January 1, 2021, Judge Jeremy Kernodle dismissed the case saying all of the plaintiffs lack standing and therefore the court "is without subject matter jurisdiction". On appeal, the three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the case on January 2, finding, for the same reasons as did the district court, that "no plaintiff has… standing." Kernodle did not get into the constitutionality of the Act.