Texas accuses states of ‘cavalier unseriousness’ about right to vote in Supreme Court reply-brief

Filing of reply-brief sets case up for action by Supreme Court justices

Texas has responded to blistering filings by attorneys general for the four battleground states whose election results it is seeking to overturn in the Supreme Court.

In a reply-brief to its lawsuit against Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin, Texas says that it “does not seek to disenfranchise the majority of Defendant States’ voters,” adding  that their “maladminsitration” of the 2020 election makes it impossible to know which candidate won.

Despite its call to invalidate the votes of millions of people, Texas accuses the four states of having “a cavalier unseriousness about the most cherished right in a democracy — the right to vote”.

President-elect Joe Biden won all four of the states and the results have been certified by the governors of each one, but Texas seeks to stop their electoral college votes from being counted in an attempt to throw the election to Donald Trump.

A total of 106 Republican lawmakers signed onto the Texas brief in support of delaying the certification of presidential electors by those states.

The filing of the reply-brief by Texas sets up the Supreme Court justices to take action on the case. The consensus among legal experts is that the court will reject it.

The justices are meeting on Friday for a private conference at which the case could be discussed, so an order could be issued later in the day.

At the latest, it is expected to come by the end of weekend, with the timing partially dependent on whether a justice will write an opinion explaining the decision.

If the request by Texas to be heard is denied, and no opinion is written, then the court could simply issue a one sentence order.

Much of the case relies on allegations that were made in other jurisdictions and subsequently rejected by those courts, but Texas argues that does not matter, because had not had a chance to bring its own litigation.

The state says that if the court does not act on its allegations, it could incentivise “further lawlessness and will drive honest voters from the polls”.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton then appears to accuse cities such as Atlanta, Detroit, and Philadelphia of stealing the election from President Trump: “Why should anyone vote if a few urban centres will manufacture an unlawful and insuperable vote margin?”

The response dismissed criticisms by Pennsylvania that Texas’ supposed statistical evidence did not hold up, and when the Michigan filing said that it was “at a loss to explain” one of the allegations, it must be accurate. In fact, the Michigan attorney general was saying that the complaint didn’t make any sense.

Thursday's filing by Pennsylvania describes the Texas case as  a “cacophony of bogus claims” in support of a “seditious abuse of the judicial process”, resting on “a surreal alternate reality”.

Michigan argues in its filing that the challenge is unprecedented and "without factual foundation or a valid legal basis", and Wisconsin said it was an “extraordinary intrusion” into the states’ affairs.

Criticism of the actions of Mr Paxton on behalf of his state have included allegations that he is pursuing the case in the court in order to win favour with Mr Trump, with the possibility of a pardon being floated concerning an ongoing FBI investigation into bribery.

Commentators have been especially critical of the Republican lawmakers who have signed on in support of the case — even coming from within the party. Senator Mitt Romney referred to it as “madness”, a sentiment echoed by former Florida governor Jeb Bush.

“This is crazy. it will be killed on arrival. Why are smart people advancing this notion? Let it go. The election is over,” Mr Bush tweeted in response to a post regarding how Texas could not even get its Solicitor General — the man who argues on behalf of the state before the Supreme Court — to sign onto the lawsuit.

CNN White House correspondent John Harwood was a little blunter when he spoke of “the rot inside the Republican party right now”, saying: “These are people who if Donald Trump said ‘I’m going to trash you on Twitter, unless you go smack your mom in the face’, they would go smack their moms in the face and then try and explain it to them afterwards.”

“In reality what they're doing is smacking American democracy in the face,” he added.