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December 9, 2020
By Martin Walsh
The state of Texas is getting things done.
Earlier this week, Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Georgia.
That lawsuit asked the Supreme Court to order state legislatures in Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia, and Pennsylvania to displace “tainted” election results in those States and choose their own slate of electors.
In other words, Paxton is asking that Republican state legislatures in those four states — which have been called for Joe Biden — be allowed to choose their own slate of electors, presumably to hand the election to President Donald Trump in January.
Late on Tuesday evening, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the four states to respond to the lawsuit from Paxton by Thursday, December 10.
SUPREME COURT.⚖️
BREAKING: "Response to the motion [is] due Thursday, December 10, by 3 pm."
SCOTUS issues *deadline* to Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin & Georgia to respond to Texas lawsuit charging states with violating the U.S. Constitution with unlawful state elections.🔻 https://t.co/KF9RMLyTqG
— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) December 9, 2020
The Supreme Court posted online Tuesday evening: “Response to the motion for leave to file a bill of complaint and to the motion for a preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order or, alternatively, for stay and administrative stay requested, due Thursday, December 10, by 3 pm.”
Paxton sued battleground states on behalf of the State of Texas saying the states made unconstitutional changes to their laws before the 2020 election.
Here is his full statement on the matter:
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton today filed a lawsuit against Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin in the United States Supreme Court. The four states exploited the COVID-19 pandemic to justify ignoring federal and state election laws and unlawfully enacting last-minute changes, thus skewing the results of the 2020 General Election. The battleground states flooded their people with unlawful ballot applications and ballots while ignoring statutory requirements as to how they were received, evaluated, and counted.
“Trust in the integrity of our election processes is sacrosanct and binds our citizenry and the States in this Union together. Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin destroyed that trust and compromised the security and integrity of the 2020 election. 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,” said Attorney General Paxton. “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.”
Elections for federal office must comport with federal constitutional standards. For presidential elections, each state must appoint its electors to the electoral college in a manner that complies with the Constitution. The Electors Clause requirement that only state legislatures may set the rules governing the appointment of electors and elections and cannot be delegated to local officials. The majority of the rushed decisions, made by local officials, were not approved by the state legislatures, thereby circumventing the Constitution.
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