Days after ordering a recount, an Obama-appointed federal judge in Michigan has ended Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein’s efforts in Michigan, one that Stein acknowledged included zero chance of changing the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. Stein now says she will appeal. Federal law requires the Electoral College to be ready to cast its votes to elect the next president by December 19, 2016. Stein sued on December 2, challenging the pause required by Michigan law as unconstitutional, under which a recount could not begin until December 7—two days after the state canvassing board denied her objections to their certifying the result. U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith of the Eastern District of Michigan had originally granted a temporary restraining order (TRO)—the most extreme form of judicial action—ordering state officials to begin the recount on December 5. Michigan and the Michigan Republican Party filed an emergency appeal, and the next day, the TRO was upheld in a 2-1 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. (Of the two judges voting to affirm the lower court, one was appointed by Bill Clinton, the other by Barack Obama.) Judge David McKeague vigorously dissented, writing: The district court