UT LAW PROFESSOR STEVE VLADECK CALLS KEN PAXTON'S LAWSUIT 'INSANE'

Texas files lawsuit with Supreme Court against four battleground states Biden won

 

by Zachary Halaschak and Mike Brest 

 

Washington Examiner

December 8, 2020

 

The state of Texas has filed a lawsuit directly with the Supreme Court against a handful of battleground states that went to President-elect Joe Biden in the presidential election.

The suit, which was filed late Monday night by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, lists the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the states of Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin as defendants. The complaint alleges that the four states, all of which went for Biden, made unconstitutional changes to how their state votes. Texas is seeking for the Supreme Court to rule that the states can send electors to vote for Trump despite the election's results.

"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,” Paxton said in a statement. “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.”

The suit, which says the election “suffered from significant and unconstitutional irregularities,” also claims there were “intrastate differences” in how certain voters were treated and that there was an unconstitutional “relaxation” of ballot-integrity laws.

This lawsuit echoes claims that have been made in similar suits filed in different courts throughout the country. Some of those lawsuits came from the Trump campaign, and others have come from adjacent but separate entities. To date, the suits have been overwhelmingly unsuccessful, but the latest tactic has been to try to convince states to appoint pro-Trump electors. Despite the claims, most election officials and the Department of Justice have found no proof to support allegations of widespread fraud on a scale large enough to overturn the election results.

The lawsuit also makes the bold claim that statistically it would not be possible for Biden to win all four states. “For former Vice President Biden to win these four States collectively, the odds of that event happening decrease to less than one in a quadrillion to the fourth power.”

In Pennsylvania, where Biden won by more than 80,000 votes, a group of Republicans, led by Rep. Mike Kelly, asked the state Supreme Court to overturn the state's 2019 law on mail-in voting. They argue that a state statute, known as Act 77, violates both the state and federal Constitution by allowing for “no-excuse mail-in” votes on a large scale. More than 2.5 million Pennsylvania residents voted by mail last month, constituting more than one-third of total ballots cast statewide.

The state's Supreme Court shot down the lawsuit, prompting Republican officials to make an appeal to the Supreme Court, and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has offered to make arguments if the highest court in the country decides to hear the case.

In Wisconsin, following a recount in its two most populous counties, the state’s Supreme Court declined to take up a Trump campaign lawsuit seeking to invalidate up to 221,000 ballots. The campaign filed lawsuits in lower courts, which were then combined. The fate of that case is currently pending.

Jim Troupis, Trump’s lawyer in Wisconsin, told the Washington Examiner last week that during the recount, the campaign got the exact names of the people who it claims voted illegally. The legal team’s argument focuses on four issues, including ballot envelope curing by clerks and the concept of “indefinitely confined” voters who don’t have to show photo ID to request absentee ballots.

In Michigan, there have been a litany of lawsuits filed by both Trump’s team and other Republican groups. The target of the lawsuits has largely been Wayne County (where the Democratic stronghold of Detroit is located). The Trump campaign presented several affidavits from GOP poll challengers at the TCF Center, where absentee ballots were being tabulated. They claimed to have endured harassment and “intimidation” from poll workers.

Some of the affidavits in the Wolverine State claimed they were blocked from meaningfully observing the count, although the claims have been vociferously denied by state officials who have said many of the arguments arise from the GOP challengers not understanding the actual rules. The Washington Examiner reached out to the Michigan GOP for comment about the Texas lawsuit.

Texas's lawsuit claims that elected officials in all three states unconstitutionally relaxed election-integrity laws, and thus, Biden's victory in those states cannot be certain because of the potential for fraud.

Paxton himself is dealing with some legal issues. Last month, it was reported that the FBI is investigating a whistleblower complaint from members of Paxton’s staff that alleges the attorney general abused his power to benefit wealthy real estate investor Nate Paul, who is a donor. Several of the whistleblowers have reportedly been fired, and others were put on leave or resigned.

"The allegations in the lawsuit are false and irresponsible," Georgia's Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs said in a statement. "Texas alleges that there are 80,000 forged signatures on absentee ballots in Georgia, but they don’t bring forward a single person who this happened to. That’s because it didn’t happen."

Wisconsin's attorney general also blasted the lawsuit as frivolous and compared it to the famed 1967 NFL championship game where the Green Bay Packers bested the Dallas Cowboys.

“I feel sorry for Texans that their tax dollars are being wasted on such a genuinely embarrassing lawsuit. Texas is as likely to change the outcome of the Ice Bowl as it is to overturn the will of Wisconsin voters," said Josh Kaul.