Texas Files Major Supreme Court Election Lawsuit Against 4 Battleground States
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, saying that “the 2020 election suffered from significant and unconstitutional irregularities” in the four battleground states.
“Trust in the integrity of our election process is sacrosanct and binds our citizenry and the States in the Union together,” Paxton said in a statement, according to KTVT-TV.
“Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin destroyed that trust and compromised the security and integrity of the 2020 election.”
According to the lawsuit, the battleground states used the COVID-19 pandemic as a justification and “usurped their legislatures’ authority and unconstitutionally revised their state’s election statutes,” allegedly weakening ballot integrity.
“These same government officials flooded the Defendant States with millions of ballots to be sent through the mails, or placed in drop boxes, with little or no chain of custody and, at the same time, weakened the strongest security measures protecting the integrity of the vote — signature verification and witness requirements,” the lawsuit read.
Each state is required to appoint electors to the electoral college in a way that complies with the Constitution’s rules for presidential elections, KTVT reported.
The Electors Clause says that only state legislators are allowed to set the rules for appointing electors and elections, which cannot be delegated to local officials.
Many rushed decisions in response to the coronavirus pandemic were not approved by state legislatures, according to KTVT.
“The states violated statutes enacted by their duly elected legislatures, thereby violating the Constitution. By ignoring both state and federal law, these states have not only tainted the integrity of their own citizens’ vote, but of Texas and every other state that held lawful elections,” Paxton said.
“Their failure to abide by the rule of law casts a dark shadow of doubt over the outcome of the entire election. We now ask that the Supreme Court step in to correct this egregious error.”
The lawsuit added, “Either the Constitution matters and must be followed, even when some officials consider it inconvenient or out of date, or it is simply a piece of parchment on display at the National Archives.”
University of Texas School of Law professor Steve Vladeck responded to the lawsuit calling it the “craziest lawsuit filed to purportedly challenge the election.”
“Although the Supreme Court has ‘exclusive’ jurisdiction over disputes between states, it does not automatically hear all such cases,” he explained.
Although the Supreme Court has “exclusive” jurisdiction over disputes between states, it does not automatically hear all such cases.
Rather, states have to receive “leave to file,” which usually requires showing that there’s no other forum in which these issues can be resolved.
— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) December 8, 2020
Numerous affidavits testifying to various types of election fraud have been filed in courts in several swing states.
These affidavits constitute evidence of fraud, but these allegations have yet to be proven by those courts. The legal action remains ongoing.
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