The Vice President’s Electoral Count Powers

There was substantial legal scholarship and historical support for my argument long before I advanced it in 2020. WSJ Oped June 22, 2022 by John C. Eastman, Senior Fellow, Claremont Institute

Regarding “The Jan. 6 Committee’s Missing Reform” (Review & Outlook, June 17): The Wall Street Journal editorial board endorses what it takes to be Mike Pence’s view that “The Constitution does not give the Vice President unilateral power to reject electoral votes. The argument to the contrary came from law professor John Eastman.”

The editors cite as authorities for Mr. Pence’s view “a former federal appeals judge, the conservative J. Michael Luttig, ” who testified that “There was no basis in the Constitution or laws of the United States at all for the theory espoused by Mr. Eastman”; and Greg Jacob, a lawyer for Mr. Pence, who testified that “We examined every single electoral vote count that had happened in Congress since the beginning of the country . . . . No Vice President in 230 years of history had ever claimed to have that kind of authority.”

The Journal’s reliance on these authorities introduces the distortion intended by the committee. Start with Mr. Jacob. What he is quoted…