Perkins Coie is the law firm that commissioned the infamous Steele dossier in 2016 and brought dozens of lawsuits to overturn election laws in 2020. Last week a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals sanctioned attorneys at the firm that also is the counsel of record for the Democratic National Committee. Those reprimanded include Marc Elias, the Russian dossier Machiavelli who led the pre-election legal challenge to state election laws.

The judges scored the lawyers for filing “redundant and misleading” information in a Texas case involving “straight-ticket” voting. The Lone Star State Legislature in 2017 passed a bill ending a “one punch” ballot option to select a party’s entire slate of candidates. Democrats unsuccessfully opposed the law. But Mr. Elias’s team saw a new opening with Covid, arguing in a federal lawsuit that keeping straight-ticket voting in 2020 would speed lines and reduce the risk of virus exposure.