The long-shot bid by President Donald Trump and the state of Texas to overturn the 2020 Presidential election — an attempt many have characterized as a “coup” attempt — has been shot down by the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a long-shot bid by President Trump and the state of Texas to overturn the results in four states won by Democrat Joe Biden, blocking the president’s legal path to reverse his reelection loss.
The court’s unsigned order was short: “Texas has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another state conducts its elections. All other pending motions are dismissed as moot.”
Justices Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Clarence Thomas, as they have in the past, said they did not believe the court had the authority to simply reject Texas’s request. “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.”
Trump, who has appointed three of the court’s nine members, has long viewed the Supreme Court as something of an ace-in-the-hole, and called for the justices to display “courage” and rescue him in post-election litigation.
Michael Gwin, a spokesman for the Biden campaign, said in a statement that the court “decisively and speedily rejected the latest of Donald Trump and his allies’ attacks on the democratic process.”
Trump has spent months trying to shake the nation’s faith in the integrity of its voting systems, repeatedly forecasting before Nov. 3 that the election would be rigged because of the expanded use of mail-in ballots, and then saying afterward it had been, without ever producing evidence to back up those claims in court.
Dozens of lower courts rejected cases pressed by Trump and his allies. Members of the Trump administration, including Attorney General Bill Barr, have said they haven’t found any instances of widespread fraud.
Texas, with Trump’s support, sought an extraordinary last-minute intervention by the high court. Texas claimed its rights were violated because the four states unconstitutionally expanded mail voting, opening up their elections to fraud and irregularities.
The battle over the decision also revealed how many Republican members of Congress and states attorney signing on to this lawsuit were willing to jettison America’s democratic traditions and norms to back a lawsuit most said was not only without merit but blatantly anti-democracy.
Does this mean the fat lady has sung? She has sung so much during this campaign season that she has laryngitis and may have to have an operation on her vocal cords.
Expect Trump to keep on fighting using any institutions or arguments he can, truthful or not. Most likely it’ll be the latter.
But as far as courts, what does he have left?
The People’s court?
A food court at a mall?
He already lost in the court of public opinion on November 3.
Every one of the 126 GOP House members who signed onto Texas’s ridiculous lawsuit to overturn Biden’s election (just DENIED by the Supreme Court) should hang their heads in shame. Same with the 18 state AGs, most of all the AG of TEXAS.
— Larry Sabato (@LarrySabato) December 12, 2020
No, Mr. President, you can’t fire Justice Gorsuch, Justice Kavanagh or Justice Barrett.
— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) December 11, 2020
December 11, 2020—a date which will live in democracy.
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) December 12, 2020
Great that the Supreme Court tossed the Democracy Nullification suit. Still very dangerous to democracy and a permanent sign of the Republican Party’s willingness to subvert democracy that nearly 2/3ds of GOP House members endorsed this attack on the voters of the United States.
— EJ Dionne (@EJDionne) December 12, 2020
The president telegraphed this: if he lost, the election must be rigged. And now, having failed to prove or even allege widespread fraud in dozens of court cases, he’s gotten the majority of GOP lawmakers to sign on to the lie. This is quite a moment in American history.
— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) December 11, 2020
It’s done.
Even the three justices Trump put on the Supreme Court believed the case he called “perhaps the most important case in history” was worthless, not even worthy of a hearing
— Jonathan Karl (@jonkarl) December 11, 2020
All of this so Texas AG Ken Paxton can get a pardon. Never underestimate what one Republican will do to democracy to help himself personally.
— Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) December 11, 2020
Michigan AG: "Today's Supreme Court decision is an important reminder that we are a nation of laws, and though some may bend to the desire of a single individual, the courts will not … Now it's time to move forward — not as separate states, red or blue — but as united states."
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) December 12, 2020
You're fired, Don. Supreme Court agrees. Clean out your desk and put your fat ass on the street.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) December 12, 2020
The Supreme Court wants to avoid having to listen to Ted Cruz as much as decent Americans do.
— John Pavlovitz (@johnpavlovitz) December 12, 2020
TRUMP 0
SUPREME COURT 1
AMERICA WINS.#SupremeCourtLoser
By @standforbetter
pic.twitter.com/qUUdcSdjf5— Ann is still European ? Wear your mask ? (@56blackcat) December 12, 2020
Photo 85020220 © Joe Sohm – Dreamstime.com
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.