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Now heres some lawyering that may turn out to be too clever by half.

Democratic litigator Marc Elias on Monday submitted his latest brief on behalf of defeated congressional candidate Rita Hart. He wants the House of Representatives to overturn the election in Iowas 2nd district, which Ms. Hart lost by six votes to GOP Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks. But rather than asserting that if state election law is strictly followed his client would win, Mr. Elias tells House Democrats that they may need to bend the law to reach their desired outcome.

His brief responds to questions from the Committee on House Administration. In the first response, on procedures the committee should use in adjudicating the election challenge, Mr. Elias says the Committee is certainly not bound to follow state law. The quote is from a 1985 case when the House overturned an Indiana election to seat the Democrat.

That sentence wasnt a slip. Mr. Elias adds that when voter intent can be determined but a ballot is not, for one reason or another, in strict conformity with state law, it should be counted. He urges the Committee to exercise its discretion to depart from Iowa law, and adopt counting rules that disenfranchise the smallest possible number of voters.

Mr. Elias is right as a constitutional matter that each house of Congress has sweeping authority to judge its Members elections. But the explicit suggestion that state law be discarded gives the political game away.

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Democrats Give Their Iowa Game Away - The Wall Street Journal