US President Donald Trump's hope of seeking Justice at the Supreme Court, over claims of electoral fraud in the November 3rd US election, has suffered a huge setback on Friday after all his three appointed Supreme Court Justices, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett, joined Chief Justice John Roberts and the three liberal justices, to vote against lawsuit filed by the State of Texas against Pennsylvania and three other States.
In its ruling on Friday, the Court declared that Texas lacked standing to bring its case against Pennsylvania and three other states whose election rules were changed outside their respective state legislatures, as the Constitution requires.
There has been this concern among the Democratic Party that President Trump's most recent Supreme Court appointee, Amy Coney Barrett, was appointed by Trump in other to obtain favorable judgements during the election. Barrett however, denied that the president had ever raised the election with her at all.
The case which was filed by Texas State's Attorney General Ken Paxton, directly to the Supreme Court, challenging the election results from Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin, was described as 'the big one' by President Trump who said "The Supreme Court has a chance to save our Country from the greatest Election abuse in the history of the United States."
The lawsuit gained immense support and the backing of 17 States and over 100 US congressmen from the Republican Party.
However in its ruling, a statement from the Supreme Court read: “The State of Texas’s motion for leave to file a bill of complaint is denied for lack of standing under Article III of the Constitution."
“Texas has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections.”
Now what?
This latest setback for President Trump, though huge, is by no means the last nail. In fact, not even close!
In his reaction to the Supreme Court ruling, Texas Republican Chairman, Allen West, in a statement, said the Supreme Court's decision to toss the State's lawsuit, suggests it is ok for a state to take unconstitutional actions and violate its (Supreme Court's) own election law.
The statement reads: "The Supreme Court, in tossing the Texas lawsuit that was joined by seventeen states and 106 US congressman, has decreed that a state can take unconstitutional actions and violate its own election law. Resulting in damaging effects on other states that abide by the law, while the guilty state suffers no consequences. This decision establishes a precedent that says states can violate the US constitution and not be held accountable. This decision will have far-reaching ramifications for the future of our constitutional republic. Perhaps law-abiding states should bond together and form a Union of states that will abide by the constitution.”
"The Texas GOP will always stand for the Constitution and for the rule of law even while others don’t," it concluded.
It is worth noting however, that the US Supreme Court's judgment does not suggest that allegation of fraud in the contested election, or that claims of constitutional violations are false. It only ruled that Texas which serves as the Plaintiff, lacked standing to bring its case against the defendant States.
Justice Samuel Alito who along with Justice Clarence Thomas (both George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush appointees), were the only two of the nine Justices to vote in favour of hearing the suit.
Alito issued a statement arguing that the Supreme Court should take up the case.
“In my view, we do not have the discretion to deny the filing of a bill of complaint in a case that falls within our original jurisdiction,” Alito wrote, arguing that he would grant the motion to file the bill of complaint.
“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,” he concluded.
Trump's response
President Donald Trump will no doubt be disappointed with the Supreme Court judgment, but according to his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, the President will not be discouraged by the recent setback, but will continue filing lawsuits.
Speaking on Friday on Newsmax TV’s “Stinchfield”, Giuliani said, said, “The case wasn’t rejected on the merits, the case was rejected on standing. So the answer to that is to bring the case now to the district court by the president, by some of the electors, alleging some of the same facts where there would be standing and therefore get a hearing.
“The president’s reaction is to look at other options. I mean, we always knew that this was an option, that we would have to convert this into — in fact, originally, we thought about this as possibly four or five separate cases. So that is the option we are going to have to go to. There’s nothing that prevents us from filing these cases immediately in the district court in which the president, of course, would have standing, some of the electors would have standing in that their constitutional rights have been violated.”
What Else?
Trump's lawyer, Sidney Powell has announced that her team has made emergency filings in the Supreme Court for the States of Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, and Wisconsin.
Arizona case just filed.
— Sidney Powell 🇺🇸⭐⭐⭐ (@SidneyPowell1) December 12, 2020
Briefs and records will be uploaded at https://t.co/hWfqluMLgO
And at https://t.co/173MnvRx0S@realDonaldTrump @GenFlynn @RealRLimbaugh @BoSnerdley @MariaBartiromo @LouDobbs @LLinWood @KrakenWood
She said unlike the Texas case, her plaintiffs have standing, and that the cases raise constitutional issues and prove massive fraud.