“Regardless of whether removing the President, ordering a census, and reapportioning Congressional districts are within our jurisdiction, Petitioner has not shown a clear and indisputable right to such drastic relief.”

The sentence that forms the headline of this post is from yesterday’s non-precedential Third Circuit opinion in In re: Natural Born Citizen Party National Committee. Normally I don’t post about unpublished opinions, but it’s Friday and I’m making an exception.

The court rejected a “difficult to understand” mandamus petition from a fringe political party (website highlight: “Become a Pre-1933 USA Citizen agent of the Public US Citizen Debtor Trust Transmitting Utility ‘Non-taxpayer’ for a fee of $1500”) and one of its two declared candidates for U.S. president (there are 1,544 registered presidential candidates this year, including Porcupines R. Spikey, Jr.). The mandamus petition evidently sought a stay of the 2016 election, appointment of special masters to conduct a census, and reapportionment of Congressional districts.

The court warned said candidate — re-warned, actually, since this wasn’t the first such mandamus petition he filed — that “frivolous and vexatious litigation may lead to sanctions.”