17 States File Brief Supporting Texas Election Lawsuit Against PA, MI, GA, WI

Seventeen states filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court supporting the Texas election lawsuit on Wednesday.

The Texas election lawsuit aimed to delay the appointment of presidential electors in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia and Wisconsin over allegations of violation to voting laws.

Texas filed the lawsuit on Monday, arguing that the said states were in violation of the Electors Clause of the Constitution since they changed the rules through the courts or executive actions but not the state legislatures, reported Breitbart.

According to Fox News, the election lawsuit was supported by Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, and West Virginia and they were led by Missouri.

The Texas lawsuit added that certain officials from the four states "presented the pandemic as the justification for ignoring state laws regarding absentee and mail-in voting."

(Photo : Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
A supporter of President Donald Trump prays with a Stop the Steal sign outside of the Wyndham Gettysburg hotel prior to a Pennsylvania Senate Majority Policy Committee public hearing Wednesday to discuss 2020 election issues and irregularities with President Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani on November 25, 2020 in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

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The states also allegedly "flooded their citizenry with tens of millions of ballot applications and ballots."

Since these changes went through non-legislative entities, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in the lawsuit that the battleground states were in direct violation of the Constitution.

The defendant states are expected to respond to the lawsuit by Thursday, as ordered by the Supreme Court.

States Support Texas Because of 'Threat of Liberty'

In the amicus brief, the 17 states expressed interest in "safeguarding the separation of powers" amid the presidential elections.

They also wanted to ensure that the votes in their own states were not "diluted" because of the alleged unconstitutional handling in other states.

The states argued that if other states ignore the legislature, they don't just "threaten the liberty" of their own citizens but also those of other American citizens, reported Daily Wire.

Read also: Trump Presses Grievances Over Presidential Election in Rally for Runoff Candidates in Georgia

With the same reasons, the states also said they wanted to protect their states from voting fraud by mail during Presidential elections, read the document.

Trump Plans to File Support of Texas Election Lawsuit

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump said the Texas lawsuit was a "big one," after some of his election result challenges have led to dead ends.

"We will be INTERVENING in the Texas (plus many other states) case. This is the big one. Our Country needs a victory!" Trump wrote in a tweet.

His statement on the Texas suit being "big" could be because the Texas suit took advantage of the Supreme Court's rarely used original jurisdiction to bypass lower courts, said Fox News.

It's been widely considered as the Trump campaign's "longshot to succeed."

Trump also announced on Wednesday that it planned to file in support of the Texas lawsuit.

Georgia, Michigan Fire Back at Texas Legal Challenge

A spokesperson from Georgia's Office of the Attorney General told Breitbart that the argument behind the Texas lawsuit was "constitutionally, legally and factually wrong about Georgia."

Michigan's attorney general also said the suit was a "publicity stunt" and "not a serious legal pleading."

Page Pate, a legal analyst told NBC affiliate 11Alive (WXIA-TV) that there was "no precedent for the Supreme Court accepting that argument."

He also did not expect the Supreme Court to grant Texas' hearing.