The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday brought an abrupt end to a lawsuit filed by Texas and backed by President Donald Trump seeking to throw out voting results in four states, dealing him a crushing setback in his quest to undo his election loss to President-elect Joe Biden.
Four California Congressmen, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, had backed the long-shot attempt that was widely criticized by legal experts as undermining Democratic traditions.
The justices in a brief order rejected the bid by Texas to file the extraordinary challenge targeting Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin directly with the Supreme Court, as is allowed in some instances of litigation between states under a legal doctrine called “original jurisdiction.”
The order said Texas did not have legal standing to bring the claim.
“Texas has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another state conducts its elections,” the court said in the unsigned order.
Two of the court’s conservatives, Justice Samuel Alito and Justice Clarence Thomas, said they would have allowed Texas to sue but would not have blocked the four states from finalizing their election results.
The case was filed on Tuesday by the Republican attorney general of Texas, a Trump ally, against Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The Republican president on Wednesday filed a motion to intervene and become a plaintiff.
The four states in a filing with the court on Thursday asked the justices to reject the lawsuit, which they said had no factual or legal grounds.
Trump’s campaign and his allies already had lost in numerous lawsuits in state and federal courts challenging the election results. Trump has falsely claimed he won the Nov. 3 election and has made baseless allegations of widespread voting fraud and a system “rigged” against him. State election officials have said they have found no evidence of such fraud. Lawyers for Trump and his allies have failed to present evidence in court of the type of fraud he has alleged.
Here’s the Supreme Court order rejecting Texas’ attempt to throw out the results of the presidential election in four other states. The court declines to hear it; the only dispute is a technical one over the manner by which it is killed.
It’s over.https://t.co/3oCkbXaYyS pic.twitter.com/RGxgHMA1zH
— Brad Heath (@bradheath) December 11, 2020
Texas has asked the justices to throw out the election results in the four states. Biden won all four states. Trump had won them in the 2016 election.
The four states in a filing with the court on Thursday asked the justices to reject the lawsuit, which they said had no factual or legal grounds.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who represents Bakersfield, added his name to the list of Republican supporters of the lawsuit on Friday morning. McCarthy is a close ally of Trump and uses a photo with the President in his Twitter and Facebook page profiles.
The other California representatives were Ken Calvert of Corona and Riverside, Doug LaMalfa of Chico and Redding, and Tom McClintock of Roseville. At least 126 House Republicans were part of the effort to overturn results of the election.
The editorial board of The San Diego Union-Tribune quickly posted a 331-word editorial saying the events of this week will be remembered as a low point in American politics.
It even took incoming Rep. Darrell Issa to task.
“Local Rep.-elect Darrell Issa’s name didn’t appear on the list of sitting Republicans backing the Texas lawsuit looking to overturn the election,” the U-T board said. “But Issa told the Los Angeles Times recently that it’s ‘only fair’ for the president to exhaust all his appeals as Vice President Al Gore did before conceding to George W. Bush in 2000. Yes, Gore took 36 days to concede.”
The editorial continued: “But this Republican coup is nothing like the combat over hanging chads back then. The GOP’s refusal to accept the election results that have now been certified in all 50 states suggests America is on track for a new normal in which facts, logic and reality don’t matter if they don’t cohere with ideology.”
Reuters contributed to this report.
