Texas wants to overturn millions of votes. Idaho attorney general won’t support it
Idaho’s attorney general refused to join the lawsuit asking the Supreme Court to stop Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin from casting their electoral votes.
The court on Friday rejected the lawsuit, which would have effectively undone Joe Biden’s electoral victory.
Twenty-two other Idaho officials, including Gov. Brad Little, Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin, both U.S. representatives and more than a dozen state legislators, supported the lawsuit. All are Republicans.
The lawsuit came from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who alleged that the four states improperly administered their elections in a way that changed the outcome of the election. Most voters in all four states voted for President-elect Joe Biden, but Paxton argued that the alleged flaws “preclude knowing who legitimately won the 2020 election.”
Attorneys general, all of whom are Republicans, from 18 other states, signed amicus briefs, filings in which a party not directly involved in a case weighs in. President Donald Trump also filed a motion alleging that illegal votes were cast, although no evidence of that exists on a large scale.
Officials from the states being sued say the lawsuit should be thrown out. The Supreme Court agreed. On Friday the court said Texas “has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections.”
Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden did not sign on to the lawsuit. In a statement Thursday, he said “the legally correct decision may not be the politically convenient decision,” but that his responsibility was to Idaho.
“This decision is necessary to protect Idaho’s sovereignty. As attorney general, I have significant concerns about supporting a legal argument that could result in other states litigating against legal decisions made by Idaho’s Legislature and governor,” Wasden said in a news release. “Idaho is a sovereign state and should be free to govern itself without interference from any other state. Likewise, Idaho should respect the sovereignty of its sister states.”
McGeachin and several Republican legislators from Idaho, Alaska and Arizona joined McGeachin in a brief filed Thursday, arguing that the “failure of sister states to appropriately fulfill their constitutional duties to a presidential election has materially injured the republic shared by all states.”
In a news release, McGeachin said “there is no duty more fundamental” than protecting the government.
U.S. Reps. Mike Simpson and Russ Fulcher joined more than 100 other members of Congress in a similar brief.
The lawsuit argued that the states used COVID-19 as an excuse to get around their state legislatures and “unconstitutionally revise their state’s election statutes.” It asked the court to overturn the Electoral College votes of the four states and to delay the Electoral College vote scheduled for Monday.
Experts called the lawsuit a “long shot” and the “craziest lawsuit.” One expert told NBC News that overturning that many votes — those 62 electoral votes represent nearly 20 million voters — would be “unthinkable.”
The Supreme Court could have heard the case if at least five justices agreed that it should move forward.
This story was originally published December 10, 2020 at 6:56 PM.
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