Texas Files with U.S. Supreme Court Against Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin
Dec. 8, 2020 (EIRNS)—On Monday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a motion before the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of the State of Texas, calling for that Court to intervene in the election process in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. The Texas motion writes that “the 2020 election suffered from significant and unconstitutional irregularities in the Defendant States,” such as “Non-legislative actors’ purported amendments to States’ duly enacted election laws, in violation of the Electors Clause’s vesting State legislatures with plenary authority regarding the appointment of presidential electors.” Listing other violations of law and of the unique prerogative of the legislatures to decide how to conduct elections, the motion states, “All these flaws—even the violations of state election law—violate one or more of the federal requirements for elections (i.e., equal protection, due process, and the Electors Clause) and thus arise under federal law.” (Emphasis in original.)
The motion to file a complaint concludes with the relief sought: “ultimately, enjoin the use of unlawful election results without review and ratification by the Defendant States’ legislatures and remand to the Defendant States’ respective legislatures to appoint Presidential Electors in a manner consistent with the Electors Clause and pursuant to 3 U.S.C. § 2.”
Noting that only the January 20 date of the inauguration is mandated by the Constitution, the complaint calls for the court to intervene: “To safeguard public legitimacy at this unprecedented moment and restore public trust in the presidential election, this Court should extend the December 14, 2020 deadline for Defendant States’ certification of presidential electors to allow these investigations to be completed.”
They write that “Plaintiff States and their voters are entitled to a presidential election in which the votes from each of the states are counted only if the ballots are cast and counted in a manner that complies with the pre-existing laws of each state.”
The facts laid out in the filing point to the problems with mail-in ballots, the lack of signature verification, and, most importantly, that changes to the manner of conducting the election were either made not by legislatures but rather by executive officials, by legislation that itself violated the state constitution, or as a result of friendly lawsuits.
Other government officials are joining in support, including Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, and Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry.
On Tuesday evening, the Supreme Court called for the defendant states to respond to Texas’s suit by Thursday, Dec. 10, at 3 p.m.
The requests made of the court include the following:
A. Declare that Defendant States Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin administered the 2020 presidential election in violation of the Electors Clause and the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
B. Declare that any electoral college votes cast by such presidential electors appointed in Defendant States Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin are in violation of the Electors Clause and the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and cannot be counted.
D. Enjoin Defendant States’ use of the 2020 election results for the Office of President to appoint presidential electors to the Electoral College and authorize, pursuant to the Court’s remedial authority, the Defendant States to conduct a special election to appoint presidential electors.
E. If any of Defendant States have already appointed presidential electors to the Electoral College using the 2020 election results, direct such States’ legislatures, pursuant to 3 U.S.C. § 2 and U.S. CONST. art. II, § 1, cl. 2, to appoint a new set of presidential electors in a manner that does not violate the Electors Clause and the Fourteenth Amendment, or to appoint no presidential electors at all.
