The U.S. Supreme Court has officially denied a Texas lawsuit challenging the election results in four swing states. In a short notice issued on Dec. 11 the high court said Texas had a lack of standing to bring the case.
“Texas has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections,” the order stated. “All other pending motions are dismissed as moot.”
The court’s order effectively brings an end to a lawsuit which many conservatives saw as the last best hope to help President Donald Trump win reelection. The president called the lawsuit “The big one,” in a Tweet earlier this week.
By Dec. 10 the Texas suit had spurred nearly every state to weigh in – more than a dozen on each side. In addition, more than 100 members of the U.S. House supported Texas.
Alaska signed on to an amicus brief on Dec. 10 supporting the suit, which asked the Supreme Court to throw out the election results from Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania due to alleged violations of state and federal election laws. Texas maintained that these states enacted illegal last-minute changes that impacted the 2020 election results for the entire nation.
Altogether the four states in question have 62 Electoral College votes. If Biden had lost just 37 of these, he would not have enough votes to reach the 270-vote threshold to become the next president.
On Dec. 9, Gov. Mike Dunleavy commented via Facebook as to why he backed the decision of Alaska’s Acting Attorney General Ed Sniffin to join the Texas lawsuit.
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“I agree with the AG that the integrity of this election is a critical bedrock principle of our republican form of government,” Dunleavy noted. “There are too many important questions that need to be answered to give the American people confidence that their vote counts.”
He added: “Signing onto cases such as this should never be taken lightly. While this case concerns election integrity, it also has an impact on state’s rights. As Alaskans, we should all be careful about involving ourselves in the inner workings of other states. However, the issue of election integrity impacts all of us, and the question of free and fair elections must be answered in order for Americans to have confidence in our system. We hope for an expedited decision from the Supreme Court.
In addition to the State of Alaska joining the Texas lawsuit, seven Alaska legislators signed on to an amicus brief supporting the lawsuit. This includes Representatives David Eastman, Christopher Kurka, Kevin McCabe, George Rauscher, Tom McKay and newly elected Ron Gilham. Sen. Lora Reinbold has also signed.
