Johnson was asserting that Congress should—absent any constitutional authority, or legal or factual basis—reject the rulings of the courts and throw out the duly certified electors from each of these states. He admitted that Congress had no “express authority or ability to independently prove the many allegations of fraud in the four subject states,” but then asserted, “Since we are convinced the election laws in certain states were changed in an unconstitutional manner, the slates of electors produced under those modified laws are thus unconstitutional.”
