US Supreme Court Denies Texas Lawsuit Seeking To Block Election Results In Wisconsin

The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected a lawsuit filed by the Texas attorney general attempting to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s victories in Wisconsin and three other states.

The brief order handed down by the court Friday night does not close the door to President Donald Trump’s other lawsuits in state and federal courts seeking to overturn Wisconsin’s election results. But the implications of the ruling were still massive in a case that was supported by Republican attorneys general in 18 states as well as 126 Republican members of Congress, including Wisconsin U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany.

The Supreme Court’s order Friday denied the petition by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, ruling it lacked standing to bring the claim under the U.S. Constitution.

Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas issued a brief statement saying they would have heard the case but they would not have granted other relief, meaning they would not have supported Texas’ request to overturn election results in Wisconsin, Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

Conservatives hold a 6-3 majority on the U.S. Supreme Court, including three justices nominated by Trump himself.

Trump sent strong signals recently that he viewed the Texas case as the most consequential of all the lawsuits involving November’s election.

“This is the big one,” Trump tweeted Wednesday.

Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, who defended the state against the Texas lawsuit, celebrated the ruling Friday.

“I’m very happy that the U.S. Supreme Court swiftly rejected the request of Texas’s AG, the President, and a troublingly large number of Republican AGs and members of Congress to take power away from millions of voters and give it to politicians,” Kaul tweeted. “Today’s ruling is strong vindication of the rule of law and a victory for democracy.”

Despite the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in this case, there’s still an outside chance that justices would have a different view of other cases making their way through the court system.

U.S. District Court Judge Brett Ludwig could issue a decision at any moment in Trump’s federal lawsuit seeking to overturn Wisconsin’s election results.

In addition, the Wisconsin Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments for Saturday in Trump’s state lawsuit. Even though it’s a state court, any decision justices issue there could theoretically be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.