James A. Byrne U.S. Courthouse in Philadelphia
PHILADELPHIA – A fair-elections group that filed a round of unsuccessful lawsuits is now blaming its lawyer, who briefly served as Pennsylvania’s attorney general 10 years ago.
United Sovereign Americans went to court in 2024, alleging federal elections in Texas, Maryland, Pennsylvania and elsewhere in 2022 were not handled appropriately. But judges like Daryl Bloom of Harrisburg tossed the cases, as he ruled last year that USA and its named plaintiffs lacked standing to bring them.
In a March 12 legal malpractice lawsuit filed in Philadelphia federal court, USA blames attorney Bruce Castor and the law firm Van der Veen, Hartshorn, Levin & Lindheim. Castor is a former Montgomery County district attorney who became interim state attorney general for two weeks in August 2016 when then-AG Kathleen Kane resigned following a criminal conviction of perjury.
Castor is accused of creating a losing strategy for USA’s cases, then failing to complete work on them while billing $417,000.
“Defendants’ conduct did not merely involve litigation strategy or professional judgment,” the lawsuit says.
“Rather, Defendants repeatedly failed to perform basic professional obligations required of competent counsel, including researching controlling law, pleading viable causes of action, curing jurisdictional defects after courts expressly identified them, preserving amendment opportunities granted by federal courts, and competently presenting the evidentiary record on appeal.”
USA brought suit against federal and Pennsylvania officials in 2024, alleging violations of the Help America Vote Act and the National Voter Registration Act. It claimed data showed errors in Pennsylvania’s federal voter rolls and included plaintiffs who claimed their votes were not counted.
USA called the case “historic,” but chief U.S. magistrate judge Bloom threw it out in March 2025. One plaintiff, a Constitution Party candidate for U.S. Senate, couldn’t show a “particularized” injury, Bloom found. Instead, the complaint only made general claims that the integrity of elections in Pennsylvania would be undermined if officials weren’t forced to address USA’s concerns.
USA alleged 9,000 more votes were counted than voters who voted, outside of an error rate laid out in the HAVA. It did not challenge the 2022 results and instead only sought to prevent any violations in the future.
Bloom cited U.S. Supreme Court direction that says the context of voting creates a special need for plaintiffs to allege injuries caused a "disadvantage to themselves as individuals."
"In contrast," Bloom wrote, "standing does not exist where a party brings only a 'generally available grievance about government' that alleges 'only harm to his and every citizen's interest in proper application of the Constitution and laws, and seeking relief that no more directly and tangibly benefits him than it does the public at large.'"
Plaintiff Ruth Moton said she spent money on three campaigns but could not be certain of the location and identity of voters she was attempting to canvas. The money was spent in 2018, 2020 and 2022, and since the lawsuit only sought future remedies, her claim was missing redressability.
Diane Houser said her vote was not recorded in the Statewide Uniform Registry of Electors system. Dean Dreibelbis said he observed and reported numerous election errors but was ignored.
"Without an allegation that either petitioner had a protected legal interest in receiving a response to their reports, or in having a vote appear in the SURE system, they fail to allege an injury," Bloom wrote.
"Further, even assuming arguendo that we were to find these to be cognizable injuries, it is apparent they will not be redressed by the exclusively forward-looking relief petitioners seek."
