U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) filed a brief in his case against Vice President Mike Pence saying that Pence can make a choice on electors “as he sees fit.”

“Under the Constitution, he has the authority to conduct that proceeding as he sees fit,” Gohmert argues in the brief. “He may count elector votes certified by a state’s executive, or he can prefer a competing slate of duly qualified electors. He may ignore all electors from a certain state. That is the power bestowed upon him by the Constitution.” 

Gohmert contends that the Constitution gives Pence the right to be the sole arbiter during the Jan. 6 session under the 12th Amendment.

“By reaffirming the Constitutional prerequisites and processes for deciding the Presidential election and granting the relief requested, this Court can set the stage for a calm and permanent resolution of any and all objections and help smooth the path toward a reliable and peaceful conclusion to the presidential election process,” the brief states.

Gohmert said he isn’t asking the court to choose the winner of the presidential election and he’s not asking the court to rule on if there was fraud in several battleground states. He’s simply wanting to confirm that a federal statute can’t conflict with the U.S. Constitution.

Gohmert argues that the defendants never mention that issue and instead, they argue that Pence is relegated to simply opening envelopes. 

“They say that the Vice President, the glorified envelope-opener in chief, has no authority to preside over anything else or to decide anything of substance or to even count the votes in those weighty envelopes,” Gohmert says in the brief. “He is only the envelope-opener.”