U.S. Supreme Court rejects Texas’ lawsuit against 4 battleground states over election
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s U.S. Supreme Court challenge to the election results in four battleground states that were key to securing the presidency for Joe Biden came to a quick end Friday when the court rejected the lawsuit.
In a one-page filing, the court said it would not accept the case because of lack of standing.
“Texas has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections,” the order states.
Paxton filed the lawsuit Monday against Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in the U.S. Supreme Court. Texas and other states that have since joined the litigation were attempting to overturn the presidential election results in the four states, arguing they made unconstitutional changes to election laws during the coronavirus pandemic
The merits of the lawsuit have been disputed by the four states and law experts.
“Since Election Day, State and Federal courts throughout the country have been flooded with frivolous lawsuits aimed at disenfranchising large swaths of voters and undermining the legitimacy of the election,” a response to the lawsuit filed by Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro reads. “The State of Texas has now added its voice to the cacophony of bogus claims.”
Paxton Friday evening called the court’s decision “unfortunate.”
“It is unfortunate that the Supreme Court decided not to take this case and determine the constitutionality of these four states’ failure to follow federal and state election law,” Paxton said in a statement. “I will continue to tirelessly defend the integrity and security of our elections and hold accountable those who shirk established election law for their own convenience.”
What Fort Worth lawmakers said
Some Tarrant County lawmakers weighed in on the lawsuit, but most kept quiet ahead of the court’s Friday evening order.
Grand Prairie Democrat Chris Turner, who is the Texas House Democratic Caucus chair, has been an opponent of the lawsuit.
In a letter to Paxton’s office, he requested information on state funds used to prepare and file the lawsuit, written communications between White House officials and President Donald Trump’s campaign staff and legal team, as well as information about the number of employees working on the lawsuit.
“It’s clear that the attorney general is abusing his office and therefore abusing official resources in the form of state employees and state funds in an effort to overturn a national election,” Turner said Friday.
Rep. Ramon Romero Jr, D- Fort Worth, put his first impression of the litigation this way: “He must be working on a pardon,” he said, referring to Paxton’s legal troubles.
Paxton’s office did not return a request for comment on suggestions that the lawsuit is a way to gain favor with Trump.
“I think that it’s an overstep of his responsibilities to Texas … in order to create a name for himself, and a name that isn’t one most Texans are very proud of,” Romero said.
State Sen. Beverly Powell, D-Burleson, said “the 2020 election was free, fair and has been settled.”
“Joe Biden has been elected President and Republicans posted victories in Congressional and State Legislative races,” she said in a statement. “Politically motivated lawsuits will not change the will of the voters. With so many challenges facing our state and nation, it’s time to put the politics aside and focus on the important work of governing.”
Ahead of the ruling, state Rep. Tony Tinderholt, R-Arlington, said the lawsuit has his support. He hoped that Texans will respect whoever becomes president, but said that for now, “we need to allow the legal process to work.”
“There’s nothing more sacred than an election, especially in a free country,” Tinderholt said. “I think we need to get to the bottom of it. Did something happen? And if indeed it happened, who did it and was the election in the states done properly and according to state and federal laws? And if they weren’t then they need to be negated and then let the process work through.”
Experts have said there’s been no evidence of widespread voter fraud, and that the November election was the most secure in U.S. history.
State Representatives Bill Zedler, R-Arlington, and Giovanni Capariglione, R-Southlake, as well as incoming elected state Reps. David Cook and Jeff Cason, who are both Republicans, did not immediately return requests for comment. State Sens. Jane Nelson, F-Flower Mound, and Kelly Hancock, R- North Richland Hills, also did not return a request for comment.
State Representatives Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, Stephanie Klick, R-Fort Worth, Jonathan Stickland, R- Bedford, Craig Goldman R- Fort Worth, Matt Krause R- Fort Worth, and Nicole Collier, D- Fort Worth, declined to comment. Geren said he hadn’t read the lawsuit and didn’t want to comment on something he hasn’t reviewed. Klick too said she wasn’t familiar with the details of the lawsuit.
Zedler on Facebook Wednesday cheered states supporting Texas’ lawsuit. Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana Mississippi, South Carolina and Utah on Thursday filed a motion to intervene in the lawsuit. Others states have expressed both support for and opposition to the litigation in court documents.
“There is a freight Train Coming! The Truth will set you Free!,” Zedler said on Facebook.
Battleground states’ rebuke
“Moot, meritless and dangerous” are the words Shapiro, the Pennsylvania attorney general, used to describe the lawsuit.
“Texas seeks to invalidate elections in four states for yielding results with which it disagrees,” the document reads. “Its request for this Court to exercise its original jurisdiction and then anoint Texas’s preferred candidate for President is legally indefensible and is an affront to principles of constitutional democracy.”
On Twitter after the court denied the lawsuit, Shapiro said “this swift denial should make anyone contemplating further attacks on our election think twice.”
All four states argued that Texas’ lawsuit should be denied and that the claims in the lawsuit are baseless.
“The novel and far-reaching claims that Texas asserts, and the breathtaking remedies it seeks, are impossible to ground in legal principles and unmanageable,” the document submitted by Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr reads.
In Wisconsin’s court filing on Thursday, Attorney General Josh Kaul argued that Texas is proposing “an extraordinary intrusion into Wisconsin’s and the other defendant States’ elections.”
“Wisconsin has conducted its election and its voters have chosen a winning candidate for their State,” the response reads. “Texas’s bid to nullify that choice is devoid of a legal foundation or a factual basis.”
“I’m very happy that the U.S. Supreme Court swiftly rejected the request of Texas’s AG, the President, and a troublingly large number of Republican AGs and members of Congress to take power away from millions of voters and give it to politicians,” Kaul said in a Friday tweet.
Sanford Levinson, a professor in the University of Texas at Austin School of Law, was doubtful the court would take up the case — a premonition that became true Friday.
“I have yet to find a reputable lawyer across the ideological spectrum who believes there is any merit to this case,” Levinson said.
Texas on Friday filed a response to the four states. In a statement, Paxton said the states “continue to obscure the truth and misapply the law.”
“Without the Supreme Court granting Texas’s motion, the results of the 2020 election will forever be tainted by concerns of illegitimacy,” Paxton said.
Republican members of Congress expressed support
More than 100 Republican members of Congress had voiced their support for the lawsuit in a brief filed with the Supreme Court. Congress members named include U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Lewisville, U.S. Rep. Kenny Merchant, R- Coppell, and U.S. Rep. Ron Wright, R-Arlington.
“It is now the duty of this Honorable Court to objectively review the facts presented by the Plaintiff in this historic case, render judgment upon the unconstitutional actions in the Defendant states, and restore the confidence of all Americans that the rule of law will be upheld today and our elections in the future will be secured,” the document reads.
U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, R-Fort Worth, was not among the representatives listed on the brief supporting Texas’ lawsuit. A request for comment was not returned.
She told CNN in November that she had “great concerns about” Trump’s claims that the election was rigged.
“I think that it’s time to move on,” she said.
On the U.S. Senate side, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, had said he’d make the oral arguments if the case were heard before the Supreme Court, according to the New York Times. But U.S. Sen. John Cornyn told CNN he struggled “to understand the legal theory” of the lawsuit.
The lawsuit had the support of Trump, who referred to it as “the big one” in a tweet and intervened in the lawsuit.
Trump criticized the court’s decision on Twitter Friday night and Saturday morning, where he continued to claim there was voter fraud in the election.
“The Supreme Court really let us down. No Wisdom, No Courage!,” Trump said on Twitter.
This story was originally published December 11, 2020 at 5:53 PM.
