'Bidenbucks' Tentacles Expand As Judge Shuts Down Lawsuit

S E E D E D   C O N T E N T

With a little over seven months until Election Day, "Bidenbucks" are ramping up where Team Biden's sweeping taxpayer-funded get-out-the-vote order is most needed. Meanwhile, a federal judge has stopped a Bidenbucks complaint described as "the MOST important election integrity lawsuit in the country."

The Michigan Department of State recently announced a signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the U.S. Small Business Administration "to promote civic engagement and voter registration in Michigan." The agreement, according to Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and SBA Administrator Isabel Casillas Guzman is a "first-of-its-kind collaboration" for the federal agency. It is expected to run through Jan. 1, 2036. That is, if legal challenges can't stop the apparently unconstitutional "understanding."

"Small businesses are the lifeblood of our economy. Like voting, they play a direct role in improving people's lives," the swing state's leftist secretary of state, who fancies herself as a defender of democracy, said in a press release. "I'm proud we are working with the Small Business Administration for this first-in-the-nation effort connecting Michigan's small business community with the tools and information they need to play an even greater active role in our democracy."

It's all hands on deck to #DefendDemocracy this year! Proud to join with @JLydgate of @statesunited, Senator @ReverendWarnock, and @baratunde as we work together to ensure every American citizen has confidence in their voice, their vote, and our elections. #TeamDemocracypic.twitter.com/M29KGAHhEi
— Jocelyn Benson (@JocelynBenson) March 26, 2024

Guzman insists that weaponizing the full force of the federal government to turn out voters for President Joe Biden and his big government allies is all about "protecting and strengthening our democracy." The federal bureaucrat believes registering voters is suddenly the purview of the Small Business Administration.

"Through this memorandum of understanding, the SBA will help connect Michiganders to vital voter registration information from the State of Michigan so that more small business owners can exercise their right to vote," Guzman said in a release. "Small businesses are busy working on and in their businesses, and by meeting them where they are — on our website and at our small business outreach events — we can help facilitate voter registration and civic engagement so their voices are heard."

The MOU calls for the Michigan Department of State to create a "unique URL for the SBA to use to drive online visitors to register to vote." The SBA's Michigan field office will also "allow" state department officials to operate in-person voter registration drives at SBA small business outreach events.

Where these events will occur is unclear, much like the taxpayer cost. Cheri Hardmon, Benson's senior press secretary, referred The Federalist's questions to the SBA. SBA officials did not return requests for comment.

Biden's 14019 'Sounds Harmless'

Michigan's partnership with the SBA is part of Biden's Executive Order 14019. Election integrity advocates have dubbed the order "Bidenbucks" — a nod to "Zuckerbucks" rolled out in the 2020 election. Signed within months of the Democrat's narrow victories in election-deciding battleground states like Michigan, the executive order is benignly painted as "promoting access to voting." It's ultimately designed to employ government to recruit voters for one political party.

As Tarren Bragdon, president of the Foundation for Government Accountability, wrote in a 2022 column in The Federalist, the order "directs all federal agencies to do what they can to increase voter registration and turnout, including by working with a select group of third-party organizations 'approved' by the White House."

"Sounds harmless on its face, until you consider the fact that it is being carried out by political appointees whose job security literally depends on Democrats being reelected in 2022 and 2024, and that the person charged with collecting the plans and leading this effort is President Joe Biden's domestic policy advisor, Susan Rice," Bragdon wrote.

Judge Dismisses Bidenbucks Lawsuit

Earlier this year, Republicans in the Pennsylvania legislature sued Biden and Keystone State Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, charging the election order is an overreach of executive power and a usurping of the constitutional authority of state legislatures to prescribe the "Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections…"

"[A]ll agency action in conformity with [EO] 14019 is without congressional delegation or funding, and conducted merely by executive fiat," the lawsuit asserts.

"The citizens of Pennsylvania have been victimized by extraordinary overreach of executive officials who have made changes to election laws with no authority to do so," Pennsylvania state Rep. Dawn Keefer, R-York County, said in a statement in late January announcing the lawsuit. "If we don't take action to stop this, there is no limit to the changes they might make to further erode Pennsylvania's election system in 2024 and beyond."

This week, a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit brought by 26 lawmakers, per the request of the state and the Biden administration. Middle Pennsylvania District Court Judge Jennifer P. Wilson, a Trump appointee, granted the motions to dismiss "because this court does not have subject matter jurisdiction due to Plaintiffs' lack of standing to raise the claims at issue."

Wilson cited rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals that found "individual legislators did not have standing to bring a challenge to an action that allegedly injured the legislature as a whole."

"…Plaintiffs have alleged only an institutional injury resulting from 'a general loss of legislative power,'" the judge wrote in her decision. "A vague, generalized allegation that elections, generally, will be undermined, is not the type of case or controversy that this court may rule on under Article III."

But there's nothing vague or generalized about the effects of Biden's voter registration executive order that serves as a federal government-funded GOTV campaign for Democrats.

As the lawsuit notes, the executive fiat requires all federal agencies to "identify and partner with specified partisan third party organizations," "distribute voter registration and vote-by-mail ballot application forms," "assist applicants in completing voter registration and vote-by-mail ballot application forms," and "solicit third-party organizations." It also "directs state officials to provide voter registration services on agency premises."

All of it is being done without congressional approval or appropriation. Meanwhile, the Biden administration refuses to release records on the initiative, raising the question: What does Team Biden have to hide?