Here’s a quick guide to the key lawsuits filed so far regarding the Florida 2018 recounts

Broward election planning director Joseph D’Alessandro, right, works on recounting votes from the midterm elections

 on Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2018, at the Broward Supervisor of Elections Office in Lauderhill, Florida. Christian Colon

Since a statewide recount was ordered last week for three major races in Florida, lawsuits have been filed all over the state. The statewide races being recounted: Republican Gov. Rick Scott and Democratic U.S. Senator Bill Nelson for Nelson’s Senate seat; Republican Ron DeSantis and Democrat Andrew Gillum for governor, and Democrat Nikki Fried and Republican Matt Caldwell for state agriculture commissioner. Here’s a look at some of the key lawsuits filed so far.

Republican Rick Scott and the National Republican Senatorial Committee vs. Broward County Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes

On Thursday, Gov. Scott held a press conference in the governor’s mansion and accused “unethical liberals” of trying to steal the race for U.S. Senate from him. His campaign filed a lawsuitThursday alleging Snipes refused to release details on voting tabulations.

Scott’s campaign claimed Snipes violated public records laws by not complying with its requests for voter and ballot information, according to the suit in Broward Circuit Court.

Status: An emergency court hearing was held Friday. Broward Circuit Judge Carol-Lisa Phillips ordered Snipes to release the number of ballots cast in the county, broken down by absentee, early and Election Day votes, to Scott’s campaign by 7 p.m. Friday. Snipes complied.

Republican Rick Scott and the National Republican Senatorial Committee vs. Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher

Scott’s campaign on Thursday sued Bucher, claiming she hindered the processing of provisional and absentee ballots. Bucher, according to the suit, refused to allow party representatives “to properly witness Defendant’s processing and duplication of physically damaged absentee ballots,” in violation of state law.

Bucher’s staff also failed to allow the Palm Beach County Canvassing Board to inspect the ballots, violating state law, the suit said.. Her staff determined if the mail-in ballots were valid themselves, according to the suit filed in Palm Beach County Circuit Court.

Status: An emergency court hearing was held Friday. Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Krista Marx declared any ballot that Bucher or her staff disqualifies will need to be reviewed by the county’s canvassing board. Marx also ordered Bucher to provide a list of everyone who filed provisional ballots by 4 p.m. Friday. Bucher has yet to comply with the judge’s order.

Democrat Bill Nelson and Democratic Executive Committee vs. Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner

Nelson’s campaign asked the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida on Thursday for an immediate injunction to force the state to count all mail-in and provisional ballots that are deemed to have a signature mismatch.

The lawsuit wants a judge to declare “that all voters who submit a (vote-by-mail) or provisional ballot, and whose ballots are subsequently determined to involve a signature mismatch, be counted as valid votes.” That would challenge Florida law, which requires officials to reject signatures that don’t match the ones on file.

The plaintiffs also requested Saturday’s deadline to canvass ballots be extended until the legal matter is resolved.

Status: Judge Mark Walker is overseeing the case. A hearing is scheduled in Tallahassee for Wednesday afternoon.

Republican Rick Scott vs. Broward County Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes and the Broward County Canvassing Board

Scott is suing the defendants to prevent the counting of absentee ballots received after the 7 p.m. deadline on Election Day and that none of those votes should be included in Broward County’s tally.

Status: The case was filed in Broward County. No hearing has been scheduled.

Republican Rick Scott vs. Broward County Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes

As elections departments across the state started the recount Sunday, Scott filed for an emergency injunction to allow the sheriff’s deputies and Florida’s Department of Law Enforcement to impound Broward County vote-tabulation machines and ballots while the recount is not under way.

The Broward recount is already secured by police outside and deputies inside, with Democratic and Republican parties and candidates’ campaigns monitoring the entire process. But Scott’s campaign asserted that Snipes’s history of violating state law called into question the integrity of the cote-counting process.

Status: Circuit Judge Jack Tuter denied Scott’s request to impound the machines. Instead, all parties agreed to add three Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies to an existing group of deputies, local police officers and private security guards to oversee the recount of the three races at the Broward election supervisor’s office in Lauderhill.

The judge asked the lawyers on all sides to “ramp down the rhetoric” as he’s seen no evidence of wrongdoing in the vote counting.

Republican Rick Scott vs. Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher

As elections departments across the state started the recount Sunday, Scott filed for an emergency injunction to allow the sheriff’s deputies and Florida’s Department of Law Enforcement to impound Palm Beach County vote-tabulation machines and ballots while the recount is not underway.

Status: One of the Scott campaign’s attorneys, Jason Zimmerman, said that the Palm Beach Supervisor of Elections agreed to add additional law enforcement officers to oversee recount activities.

League of Women Voters, Common Cause and Joanne Lynch Aye vs. Republican Rick Scott

On Monday, the group Protect Democracy sued in federal on behalf of the League of Women Voters, Common Cause and Joanne Lynch Aye, a Broward voter. The group claims Scott is improperly using his position as governor to influence the recount in the U.S. Senate race in which he is a candidate.

The lawsuit followed a letter sent by the plaintiffs over the weekend asking Scott to recuse himself.

Scott, according to the federal lawsuit filed in the Northern District of Florida, is using the powers of his office “to benefit himself and his party and to intimidate the local officials and volunteers conducting the vote count.”

The plaintiffs asked a judge to file a restraining order against Scott, to prohibit him from using his authority in any way to influence the 2018 Senate race.

Senior U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle disqualified himself from the case early Saturday. Chief Judge Mark Walker took over.

Status: A hearing is scheduled for Wednesday morning before Judge Mark Walker in Tallahassee.

VoteVets Action Fund and the Democratic National Committee vs. State of Florida

VoteVets Action Fund, a progressive veterans’ advocacy group, the Democratic National Committee, and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee filed a federal suit against the state in the Northern District of Florida on Monday.

Plaintiffs ask that mail-in ballots that were postmarked before Election Day, but not delivered before the polls closed at 7 p.m., be counted. Mail-in ballots cannot be counted if they arrive after 7 p.m. on Election Day, according to Florida law.

The lawsuit is claiming voters should not be faulted for the late delivery of absentee ballots. Nelson’s attorney, Marc Elias, cited the example of a few hundred mail-in ballots that were postmarked before Nov. 6 but got stranded at an Opa-locka postal facility, possibly because of an FBI investigation into a Miami-Dade man who sent pipe bombs through the mail before the election.

Elias said Nelson’s campaign hopes to get post-marked absentees to be counted within 10 days after the election, similarly to overseas military members’ ballots.

Status: Pending before U.S. District Judge Mark Walker in Tallahassee.

Democrat Jim Bonfiglio vs. Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner

Bonfiglio, who was trailing by 37 votes against Republican Mike Caruso for House District 89, filed a suit Tuesday in Leon County Circuit Court seeking to extend the deadline for the machine recount from 3 p.m. Thursday to next Tuesday, Nov. 20.

Nelson’s campaign filed a motion later that day to join Bonfiglio’s lawsuit.

Status: Circuit Judge Karen Gievers suspended certain deadlines for the recount in Palm Beach County not only for Bonfiglio’s statehouse race, but also for three statewide races, including Nelson’s.

Detzner is trying to move the case to federal court in the Northern District of Florida in Tallahassee.

Democrat Bill Nelson for U.S. Senate vs. Ken Detzner et al.

Nelson’s campaign is seeking to have a federal judge in the Northern District of Florida extend the deadlines for machine and manual recounts so that all 67 counties in the state can finish them on time.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday, urges U.S. District Judge Mark Walker in Tallahassee to extend the deadlines for an unspecified period of time. Under state law, the machine recounts must be completed by 3 p.m. Thursday and the manual recounts must be completed by noon Sunday.

Status: Walker scheduled a status conference on the suit for 9 a.m. Thursday.

Republican Matthew Caldwell vs. Broward County Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes

The Republican candidate for commissioner of agriculture and consumer services filed a suit Friday in Broward County against Snipes, to determine if Snipes “illegally included ballots after polls closed” Nov. 6. If so, Caldwell is asking the state to be remove potentially illegal votes from the electoral tabulation.

His campaign also filed a public-records request for vote counts and emails among Snipes, her team and third-party members regarding the midterm recount.

Status: A hearing hasn’t been scheduled yet.

Will The Democrats Steal The Florida Elections?

CNN Lawsuit Against White House Contains Multiple Mistakes, Stupid Meme References

CNN has filed a lawsuit against the White House for stripping the hard pass from CNN's chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta after he rudely refused to hand over his mic and physically blocked an intern from taking it. But CNN's legal team appears to have rushed its big lawsuit, which contains some glaring errors and curious references.

The feud over Acosta's indefinitely revoked hard pass revolves around his behavior at a November 7 press conference last week in which he, as White House Press Sec. Sarah Sanders put it, "plac[ed] his hands" on a female White House intern whom he had repeatedly refused to allow to take the microphone despite having already asked multiple questions and the president telling him in no uncertain terms that his time was up.

"President Trump believes in a free press and expects and welcomes tough questions of him and his Administration," Sec. Sanders wrote in a series of tweets announcing the removal of Acosta's pass. "We will, however, never tolerate a reporter placing his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job as a White House intern. This conduct is absolutely unacceptable. It is also completely disrespectful to the reporter’s colleagues not to allow them an opportunity to ask a question. President Trump has given the press more access than any President in history."

Here's the moment where Acosta physically blocked the intern:

NBC News

✔@NBCNews

 · Nov 7, 2018

BREAKING: President Trump, CNN Correspondent Jim Acosta and @NBCNews Correspondent @PeterAlexander engage in tense exchanges in post-election news conference.

NBC News

✔@NBCNews

BREAKING: White House aide grabs and tries to physically remove a microphone from CNN Correspondent Jim Acosta during a contentious exchange with President Trump at a news conference. pic.twitter.com/fFm7wclFw2

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But in the lawsuit, CNN attempts to place the blame on the intern for trying to take the mic after he refused to hand it over and downplays Acosta physically...

More Broward County Ballots Found!

‘IRREGULARITY AFTER IRREGULARITY’ — RUBIO BLASTS BROWARD COUNTY OFFICIALS FOR ELECTION LAW VIOLATIONS

LAUDERHILL, FL – NOVEMBER 10: Dr. Brenda Snipes, Broward County Supervisor of Elections, signs results with
 other canvassing board members after they were transmitted to the state capital on November 10, 2018 in Lauderhill, 
Florida. (Photo by Joe Skipper/Getty Images)

Senator Marco Rubio on Tuesday blasted the “level of incompetence” displayed by Broward County election officials charged with recounting votes from Florida’s razor-thin Senate and gubernatorial races.

Rubio began his conversation with Fox News host Sean Hannity by listing several irregularities the county’s office has so far been responsible for, including “19 people who were disqualified from voting by their own canvassing board.”

“So, it’s irregularity after irregularity,” said Rubio before explaining the role of “election lawyers” who have descended on Florida in the past week.

“As far as stealing is concerned, let me just make just one point on that,” said the Florida Senator. “The election lawyers are not coming to Florida to make sure every vote is counted. The reason why election lawyers get involved is to make sure as many votes as possible for their client is counted and as many votes as possible for their opponent is disqualified, and when you have an election office this incompetent and this lawbreaking it creates enormous opportunities for these sort of arguments to be made, and suddenly the election is decided by a judge or by lawyers, not by voters the way they are supposed to be.”

The only recourse, said Rubio, is to have “scrutiny and transparency” and “watch it every step of the way.”

“This level of incompetence gives you no confidence about anything with regards to that office and that’s why we’ve...

Just Checking In On Ruth Bader GInsburg...

THE MEDIA HATES TRUMP BECAUSE IT HATES FREE SPEECH

And it loved Obama because he censored free speech.

President Trump and his predecessor had very different relationships with the media. And the media had a very different relationship to each of them.

Obama didn’t like talking to the press corps. The freewheeling unstructured chats that President Trump has become known for were rare during his administration. Instead, Obama preferred to have cronies arrange extended interviews at which he held forth to a single admiring reporter from an elitist publication.

These interviews targeted Obama’s base of wealthy donors and influential figures. And they were supplemented with staged events with millennial personalities that made him seem accessible. But Obama was anything but accessible. His media interactions were carefully managed.

Even his photographs, usually the one area where politicians have the least control, were often not the work of the media, but of his own photographer, Pete Souza, producing flattering images of him for the press. The White House Correspondents Association protested that, “Journalists are routinely being denied the right to photograph or videotape the President while he is performing his official duties.”

Obama wasn’t worried about rudeness from CNN or even tough questions. The abrasive belittling that President Trump has faced from the press corps would have been unthinkable. Even tough questions were a rarity. In one of the more embarrassing moments of media fawning, the New York Times' Jeff Zeleny asked Obama, what "enchanted you the most about serving in this office?"

But Obama and his associates worked hard at staying in control of the message. They didn’t just want flattering coverage. They couldn’t have gotten negative media coverage if they had nuked Boston. What they wanted was for the media to be an extension of the White House’s messaging operation. Tight control over Obama’s availability allowed him to purposefully set the media’s agenda to match his own.

An analysis by White House Transition Project director Martha Kumar noted that while Obama gave far more interviews, President Trump has done many more short Q&As. 42% of Trump's public statements came through his time with reporters while only 31% of Obama's did. Trump works the press in front of the camera. Obama’s people did most of their work with the press behind the curtain.

Where Obama needed to tightly control the media, Trump is comfortable trolling it. Obama avoided unstructured conversations because they might lead to the media covering something other than he wanted them to. Trump however is confident about getting the media to cover exactly what he wants.

Obama structured coverage by limiting access and using cronies like Ben Rhodes to trade access, plant stories and manipulate the media into functioning as his echo chamber. Trump welcomes coverage, and keeps his interactions with the media public. Unlike Obama, he expects no secret favors from the media. And his rousing battles with the media help promote whatever he wants to talk about. The more the media hates Trump, the more it has to cover him. The more he provokes it, the more it....

School Punishes Male Teacher For Refusing To Watch A Naked Girl In The Boys’ Locker Room

A Florida school district allowed a self-described transgender female student access to the boys' locker room, with no warning to parents. The first time she walked in, she caught 'boys (literally) with their pants down.'

A Florida school district allowed a self-described transgender female student regular access to the boys’ locker room, with no advance warning to the boys or their parents. The first time she walked in, she caught “boys (literally) with their pants down, causing them embarrassment and concern by the fact that they had been observed changing by an obvious girl,” says a complaint letter to Pasco County School District from Liberty Counsel, a pro-bono constitutional law firm.

With a “gag order,” school administrators forbade teachers from talking about the change, and ordered a male P.E. teacher to supervise the potentially undressed girl in the Chasco Middle School locker room, the letter says. When he refused to “knowingly place himself in a position to observe a minor female in the nude or otherwise in a state of undress,” administrators told him “he will be transferred to another school as discipline for ‘not doing your job in the locker room.'”

In an email, an administrator initially threatened to put the male coach on administrative leave, telling him that refusing to supervise a potentially naked female student would “not be tolerated,”said Liberty Counsel attorney Richard Mast. The school’s other P.E. teacher, who is female, also objected and was ignored.

Pasco parents have yet to be informed by the school of this situation, yet the transgender student continues to have open access to private male areas, according to Liberty Counsel. Despite the initial September incident, then legal contact in October, the elected board for the district with 70,500 students has so far taken no action and administrators have refused to budge.

“Unfortunately these things are going on across the country, primarily with school psychologists and guidance counselors,” said Mast. He noted that it’s standard for public schools to pass transgender policies without informing parents, voters, or taxpayers first. That means the public only hears about it after children have been affected, withholding all opportunities for parents to prevent their child’s exposure to this kind of sexual indoctrination, confusion, and exploitation.

Last year in a Georgia public school, a five-year-old girl was allegedly sexually assaultedby a “gender-fluid” male classmate in the school bathroom after a transgender policy allowed him access. He allegedly pushed her against the wall and repeatedly jammed his fingers into her...

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