Washington:
President Donald Trump on Wednesday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to let him join a lengthy-shot lawsuit by Texas looking for to overturn his election loss by throwing out the voting outcomes in 4 states, litigation that also drew assistance from 17 other states.
In a court filing, Trump asked to intervene in the Texas lawsuit, the most current litigation to attempt to undo Democratic President-elect Joe Biden’s victory more than the Republican incumbent in the Nov. 3 election. In a separate short, lawyers for 17 states led by Missouri’s Republican Attorney General Eric Schmitt also urged the nine justices to hear the case.
Efforts in the courts on behalf of Trump difficult the election outcomes so far have failed.
The lawsuit, announced on Tuesday by the Republican lawyer basic of Texas Ken Paxton, targeted 4 states that Trump lost to Biden just after winning them in the 2016 election. Trump has falsely claimed he won re-election and has created baseless allegations of widespread voting fraud. Election officials at the state level have mentioned they have identified no proof of such fraud.
Writing on Twitter earlier on Wednesday, Trump mentioned, “We will be INTERVENING in the Texas (plus many other states) case. This is the big one. Our Country needs a victory!”
Election law authorities have mentioned the Texas lawsuit stands tiny possibility of good results and lacks legal merit.
“Both procedurally and substantively, it’s a mess,” Justin Levitt, an election law professor at Loyola Law School in California, mentioned of the Texas lawsuit. “There’s zero chance the court agrees to take the case.”
In addition to Missouri, the states joining Texas had been: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and West Virginia. All of the states had been represented by Republican officials in the filing. All but 3 of the states have Republican governors.
Officials from Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin have known as the lawsuit a reckless attack on democracy. It was filed straight with the Supreme Court rather than with a reduce court, as is permitted for specific litigation among states.
The Texas suit argued that adjustments created by the 4 states to voting procedures amid the coronavirus pandemic to expand mail-in voting had been unlawful. Texas asked the Supreme Court to quickly block the 4 states from utilizing the voting outcomes to appoint presidential electors to the Electoral College.
Biden has amassed 306 electoral votes – far larger than the required 270 – compared to Trump’s 232 in the state-by-state Electoral College that determines the election’s outcome. The 4 states contribute a combined 62 electoral votes to Biden’s total.
Texas also asked the Supreme Court to delay the Dec. 14 date for Electoral College votes to be formally cast, a date set by law in 1887.
Democrats and other critics have accused Trump of aiming to lessen public self-assurance in U.S. election integrity and undermine democracy by attempting to subvert the will of the voters.
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