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Texas Attempt to sue Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania over election procedures

Supreme Court Rejects Suit

Reporter Victoria Nuzzi

On Monday night, the state of Texas filed a lawsuit challenging election procedures in Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. Texas filed these lawsuits on the grounds that those state election procedures violate the Constitution. The lawsuit was rejected by the Supreme Court on Friday.

Texas has stated that these states have violated the electors clause of the Constitution by changing procedures and voting rules through the courts or their executive actions and not through the state’s legislature.

Texas approached the Supreme court because, under Article III, it is the "court of the first impression" on subjects where it has original jurisdiction, such as disputes between two or more states.

Texas lawsuit says as follows:

Certain officials in the Defendant states presented the pandemic as the justification for ignoring state laws regarding absentee and mail-in voting. The Defendant states flooded their citizenry with tens of millions of ballot applications and ballots in derogation of statutory controls as to how they are lawfully received, evaluated, and counted. Whether well-intentioned or not, these unconstitutional acts had the same uniform effect-they made the 2020 election less secure in the Defendant States. Those changes are inconsistent with relevant state laws and were made by non-legislative entities, without any consent by the state legislatures. The acts of these officials thus directly violated the Constitution

Texas is asked the Supreme Court to make the states allow legislatures to appoint electors.

Ken Paxton, the Texas Attorney General, spoke on Tuesday on FNC’s Hannity speaking about Texas’s lawsuits. He stated “It’s really important to my state that my voters be represented. And if other states don’t follow the Constitution, and if their state legislatures isn’t responsible for overseeing their elections and we have other people who are not under the Constitutions supposed to be doing this, it affects my state.

And so, our job is to make sure that the Constitution is followed and that every vote counts. In this case, I’m not sure that every vote was counted, not in the right way “

Multiple states had joined the lawsuit including Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, South Carolina, Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oklahoma, West Virginia, and, finally Utah.

The Texas lawsuits have also gotten support from 18 Republican attorney generals and 126 Republican members of Congress and the House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy.

President Donald Trump has also shown support for the Texas lawsuit.

Pennsylvania and other states that were targeted by the lawsuit on Thursday fought back against the lawsuit, all giving statements.

Pennsylvania officials called the lawsuit “ a seditious abuse of the judicial process”

Dana Nessel, the attorney general of Michigan, stated “ the election in Michigan is over. Texas comes as a stranger to this matter and should not be heard.”

The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed the Texas lawsuits along with most of its allegations.

The Supreme court had a unanimous ruling and did this because some of the claims in the lawsuit had already been debunked. Also because Texas did not have the legal standing to sue another state.

The Supreme stated in an unsigned order. “The State of Texas’s motion for leave to file a bill of complaint is denied for lack of stand under Article III of the Constitution. Texas has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections. All other pending motions are dismissed as moot.”

Justice Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito said the court had no right to refuse a case on its original docket. They also said they would have not granted Texas any relief and said no comment on any interest raised in the lawsuit.

Joe Biden Campaign spokesman Mike Gwin stated, “The Supreme court has decisively and speedily rejected the latest of Donald Trump’s and his allies’ attacks on the democratic process.”

Trump tweeted on Friday night “The Supreme court really let us down. No Wisdom, No Courage!”