The clock is ticking on legal challenges before the U.S. Supreme Court as states, legislators, and others pile on “friend of the court” filings in support of both parties of Texas v. Pennsylvania. What are the ramifications if SCOTUS takes up the case?
Summary
After Texas filed a lawsuit against four states earlier this week alleging unconstitutional changes to election laws, the U.S. Supreme Court has received a deluge of motions in support of both parties in the case.
- Eighteen states have filed an amicus brief supporting Texas’ position that “the [four defendant] states violated statutes enacted by their duly elected legislatures.”
- All states supporting Texas’ lawsuit have awarded or will award their electoral votes to President Trump in the upcoming Electoral College vote.
- A separate group of states and territories filed a brief in defense of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia, and Wisconsin, saying Texas’ lawsuit would “supplant states’ sovereign power to structure their own systems of government.”
- The four states being sued filed their own arguments, with Georgia’s Republican Attorney General saying Texas cannot prove it has been “harmed by the election results in other states.”
- CNBC notes the Supreme Court has yet to indicate whether it will even take up the case, let alone how it might rule.
- The Electoral College is scheduled to meet Monday for the official vote, making time of the essence, though legal experts are predicting the Court will not hear the case.
- A group of federal legislators threw their support behind Texas, with more than 100 Republicans from the House of Representatives filing an amicus brief, focusing on the argument that state courts usurped the Constitutionally-protected authority of state legislatures to determine elections law and electors to the Electoral College.
- The Hill reported that not all Republicans on Capitol Hill are supporting Texas’ lawsuit.
- In The New York Times’ opinion section, one writer argues Texas filed a “harebrained lawsuit”, and the legal efforts on behalf of President Trump are “performances” that are no longer amusing, but damaging.
- CNN argues the lawsuit and its support by Members of Congress are indicative of the dysfunction of Washington while government funding, national defense authorization, and coronavirus relief are struggling to be passed before critical deadlines.
- The Washington Post calls the legal briefs filed by Trump supporters “election assault” in its headline.
- The Daily Beast reports that after rebuking Trump’s request for the PA state legislature to intervene, the state’s Republican General Assembly leaders filed an amicus brief in support of Texas.
- Reporting by the Washington Examiner frames the Pennsylvania legislator’s amicus brief as an argument in which the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overreached and encroached on their constitutional authority.
- A contributor for The Federalist breaks down the constitutional, legal, and timing questions regarding Texas’ suit, with important tidbits on the nuances of the case not reported in other outlets.
- In its coverage of the amicus brief filed by Congressional Republicans, Newsmax makes an effort to point out those in GOP leadership who are not supporting the brief.
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© Dallas Gerber, 2020
