CASE STUDIES IN EMERGENCY ELECTION LITIGATION

Federal Judicial Center 9/2/2023 1

Unsuccessful Effort to Decertify 

Georgia’s 2020 Presidential Election Results 

a Few Days Before Congressional Certification 

Trump v. Kemp (Mark H. Cohen, N.D. Ga. 1:20-cv-5310) 

About an hour before New Year’s Day, six days before Congress 

was to certify President Biden’s Electoral College victory in the 2020 

presidential election, the defeated incumbent filed a federal complaint in the Northern District of Georgia seeking to have Georgia’s 

presidential election results decertified. The district judge denied 

the plaintiff immediate relief at a January 5, 2021, videoconference 

hearing. 

Subject: Voting irregularities. Topics: Enjoining certification; 

laches; matters for state courts; Electoral College. 

At 11:03 p.m. on Thursday, December 31, 2020, President Trump filed a federal complaint in the Northern District of Georgia against Georgia’s governor and its secretary of state seeking a court order decertifying the President’s reelection defeat in Georgia.1

 The secretary of state had certified the 

results of the presidential election in Georgia on November 20, and the governor had certified Georgia’s slate of presidential electors on November 21.2

With his complaint, the President filed a motion for expedited relief.3 On 

Monday, the court assigned the case to Judge Mark H. Cohen,4 who ordered 

a response to the motion filed that evening.5

 He set the case for a videoconference hearing on Tuesday morning.6

Judge Cohen began the hearing with an announcement that public audio 

streaming of the proceeding had not been consented to by the plaintiff’s attorney.7

 Judge Cohen ended the hearing by denying the President immediate 

relief.8 Judge Cohen issued a published opinion that day.9

1. Complaint, Trump v. Kemp, No. 1:20-cv-5310 (N.D. Ga. Dec. 31, 2020), D.E. 1; 

Scheduling Order at 1, id. (Jan. 4, 2021), D.E. 8. 

2. Trump v. Kemp, 511 F. Supp. 3d 1325, 1329 (N.D. Ga. 2021). 

3. Motion, Trump, No. 1:20-cv-5310 (N.D. Ga. Dec. 31, 2020), D.E. 2. 

4. Docket Sheet, id. (Dec. 31, 2020). 

5. Scheduling Order, supra note 1. 

Although Plaintiff’s counsel could have requested through this Court’s ECF filing system an immediate hearing over this past holiday weekend, and obtained a hearing before the duty district judge, counsel did not do so. Consequently, this Court was not 

informed of these filings until this morning at 9:38 a.m. when the case was assigned to 

the undersigned. 

Id. at 2. 

6. Id. at 3. 

7. Transcript at 4, Trump, No. 1:20-cv-5310 (N.D. Ga. Jan. 5, 2020, filed Jan. 5, 2021), 

D.E. 19. 

8. Id. at 55–56; Minutes, id. (Jan. 5, 2021), D.E. 16; see Mark Niesse, Judge Denies 

Trump’s Effort to Decertify Georgia Results, Atlanta J.-Const., Jan. 6, 2021, at 12A. 

9. Trump v. Kemp, 511 F. Supp. 3d 1325 (N.D. Ga. 2021). 
Unsuccessful Effort to Decertify Georgia’s 2020 Presidential Election Results 

a Few Days Before Congressional Certification 

2 Federal Judicial Center 9/2/2023 

Judge Cohen declined to permit the President’s “hijacking a pending 

state election contest case under any circumstances, and certainly not when 

[the plaintiff was not pursuing it diligently].”10 Nor had the plaintiff’s claims 

probable merit.11

Two days later, a day after congressional certification of President 

Biden’s victory,12 the plaintiff filed a notice of voluntary dismissal “due to an 

out of court settlement agreement.”13 The defendants acceded to dismissal, 

but characterized the reference to a settlement as “demonstrably false.”14 The 

court terminated the case on the following day.15

10. Id. at 1335. 

11. Id. at 1336–38. 

12. See Kristina Peterson & Natalie Andrews, Mob Storms Capitol—Biden Certification 

Delayed, Wall St. J., Jan. 7, 2021, at A1. 

13. Notice, Trump, No. 1:20-cv-5310 (N.D. Ga. Jan. 7, 2021), D.E. 22. 

14. Notice Response, id. (Jan. 7, 2021), D.E. 23. 

15. Docket Sheet, supra note 4.