In a tweet following the verdict, President Trump said the court had “let us down” and accused it of having “No Wisdom, No Courage!”
The US Supreme Court
on Friday dismissed a bid by Texas to overturn the results of the presidential
election, which Republican Donald Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden, in a fresh
setback for the president.
In a tweet following
the verdict, President Trump said the court had “let us down” and accused it of
having “No Wisdom, No Courage!”
The longshot suit
lodged late Tuesday against four states key in the November 3 vote — Michigan,
Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — challenged Biden’s victory in each
jurisdiction.
But the Supreme Court,
made up of nine justices including three appointed by Trump, said Texas — which
voted for the president — “has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable
interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections.”
The court’s decision
“is an important reminder that we are a nation of laws, and though some may
bend to the desire of a single individual, the courts will not,” tweeted
Michigan attorney general Dana Nessel.
Biden spokesman Mike
Gwin said the ruling was “no surprise.”
“Dozens of judges,
election officials from both parties, and Trump’s own Attorney General have
dismissed his baseless attempts to deny that he lost the election,” he said,
according to a report by AFP.
The Texas suit had
been seen as audacious and legally unsound, given that no one state has any
legal right to interfere in another’s voting processes. Even so, it was backed
by 106 Republican lawmakers and 17 state attorneys general.
Texas alleged that the
results in the other four states were “unconstitutional” because of their heavy
use of “fraud-prone” mail-in votes during the coronavirus pandemic.
It offered no proof of
significant fraud and didn’t challenge the use of mailed ballots in states
Trump won.
The suit cited
numerous alleged examples of potential fraud already rejected by lower courts.
Even so, Trump lawyer
Rudy Giuliani insisted the allegations were “sound.”
“They have to be
tested but that’s what the court is for. They can’t just dismiss it like that,”
he told Fox News.
White House
spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany said on Fox that the court “dodged” and “hid
behind the procedure.”
But perhaps the most
eyebrow-raising reaction came from the chairman of the Texas Republican Party,
who slammed the ruling and appeared to suggest the state should secede.
“Perhaps law-abiding
states should bond together and form a Union of states that will abide by the
constitution,” Allen West said in a party statement.
Trump and his allies
have filed dozens of lawsuits in several key states, almost all of which have
been thrown out by the courts.
On Tuesday the Supreme
Court also refused his bid to overturn his loss in Pennsylvania.
Trump had hoped that
the high court, whose bench he has tipped solidly to the right, would intervene
in his favour.
In 2000, the Supreme
Court halted a recount in Florida, where George W. Bush was only 537 votes
ahead of Democrat Al Gore, allowing the Republican to win the election.
Minutes before
Friday’s ruling came down Trump rereleased a new TV ad falsely claiming that
the election was stolen, calling it an “outrage” and telling supporters to
contact their legislators.
The lawsuit came as
all 50 states plus Washington, DC have formally certified their vote tallies,
opening the way to convene the Electoral College.
There is no doubt that
Biden won the presidency, with state-by-state wins giving him 306 electoral
votes to Trump’s 232.
The Democrat snagged
51.3 percent of the ballots compared to Trump’s 46.9 percent, a seven million
vote margin.
The Electoral College
is set to affirm Biden’s win on December 14, and he will be sworn in on January
20.
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