Supreme Court rejects Texas petition to nullify Biden's victory

  • On Friday, the United States Supreme Court rejected a widely-panned bid by Texas to overturn President-elect Joe Biden's electoral win.
  • The Supreme Court, in a brief order on Friday, rejected the petition, stating that Texas lacked the legal right to litigate over how other states conduct their elections.
Updated 12 Dec, 2020

On Friday, the United States Supreme Court rejected a widely-panned bid by Texas to overturn President-elect Joe Biden's electoral win; delivering a heavy blow to the Trump campaign's attempts to throw a spanner into the works.

This ruling repudiated the efforts of President Trump, in addition to his campaign legal team and the Republican party, in nullifying the President-elect's wins in Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia and Pennsylvania - key battleground states that contributed to Biden's massive 306 electoral votes.

The Supreme Court, in a brief order on Friday, rejected the petition, stating that Texas lacked the legal right to litigate over how other states conduct their elections. The judgement added that "Texas has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections".

Justice Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito wrote a dissenting statement expressing their view that the court is obligated to hear interstate disputes, adding that "In my view, we do not have discretion to deny the filing of a bill of complaint in a case that falls within our original jurisdiction, I would therefore grant the motion to file the bill of complaint but would not grant other relief, and I express no view on any other issue".

This order comes after the Supreme Court rejected a similar appeal by a Republican coalition from Pennsylvania to nullify Biden’s certified victory in the Keystone State — a state Biden won by more than 81,000 ballots.

Pennsylvania's Attorney General, in a fiery response on Thursday, stated that Texas' bid to invalidate election results are a "seditious abuse of the judicial process", urging the justices to “send a clear and unmistakable signal that such abuse must never be replicated".

The walls are clearly closing in on President Trump's efforts to mount a legal effort against the results of the election, and with a clear repudiation by the Supreme Court and the fast-approaching December 14th Electoral College meeting would render the President's strategy to be ineffective.

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