Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Texas-led suit to overturn election becomes a conservative litmus test
HOUSTON — The Texas lawsuit asking the U.S. Supreme Court to invalidate President-elect Joe Biden’s victory has quickly become a conservative litmus test, with many Republicans signing onto the case even as some have predicted it will fail.
The last-gasp bid to subvert the results of the
Nov. 3 election is the latest demonstration of President Donald Trump’s enduring political power even as his term is set to end. Seventeen Republican attorneys general are backing the unprecedented case that Trump is calling “the big one” despite the fact that the president and his allies have lost dozens of times in courts across the country and have no evidence of widespread fraud. And 106 Republicans in Congress signed on to a court filing Thursday in
support of Texas, claiming “unconstitutional irregularities” have “cast doubt” on the 2020 outcome and “the integrity of the American system of elections.”
The lawsuit filed against Michigan, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin repeats false, disproven and unsubstantiated accusations about the voting in four states that went for Biden. The case demands that the high court invalidate the states’ 62 total Electoral College. That’s an unprecedented remedy in American history: setting aside the votes of tens of millions of people, under the baseless claim the Republican incumbent lost a chance at a second term due to widespread fraud.
Still, some of the top state Republican prosecutors urging the Supreme Court to hear the case have acknowledged that the effort is a long shot and are seeking to distance themselves from Trump’s baseless allegations of fraud. North Dakota’s Wayne Stenehjem, among the 17 attorneys general supporting the case, said North Dakota is not alleging voter fraud in the four states at issue.
“We’re careful on that,” said Stenehjem, who noted his office has received thousands of calls and emails from constituents asking the state to support the suit. “But it’s worth it for the Supreme Court to weigh in and settle it once and for all,” he said.
Suits brought by Trump and his allies have failed repeatedly across the country. The Supreme Court this week rejected a Republican bid to reverse Pennsylvania’s certification of Biden’s victory.