Texas Republican Party Chairman Allen West on Friday mused whether a group of “law-abiding states” should form a union after the Supreme Court rejected an election challenge filed by Texas earlier this week.
“This decision establishes a precedent that says states can violate the US constitution and not be held accountable. This decision will have far-reaching ramifications for the future of our constitutional republic,” West said in a statement. “Perhaps law-abiding states should bond together and form a Union of states that will abide by the constitution.”
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday rejected Texas’s bid to challenge the outcome of the 2020 election results in four battleground states.
In an order, the justices denied Texas’s request to sue Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin, opining that the Lone Star State lacked legal standing—or capability—to sue under the Constitution because it has not shown a valid interest to intervene in how other states handle their elections.
“Texas has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections,” the order (pdf) read. “All other pending motions are dismissed as moot.”
Justice Samuel Alito, with Clarence Thomas concurring, issued a separate statement to say he would have granted Texas’s request to sue, but not the preliminary injunction, as he believes the Supreme Court is obligated to take up any case that falls within its “original jurisdiction.”
“In my view, we do not have discretion to deny the filing of a bill of complaint in a case that falls within our original jurisdiction. … 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,” Alito wrote in his statement.
President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign requested to join the lawsuit before the court rejected the case. Nineteen Republican state attorneys general backed Texas in the lawsuit. Twenty Democratic state attorneys general backed the defendants.
Trump has not conceded the 2020 election. His campaign and a handful of third-party groups are still litigating election challenges in several states. Texas sought to invalidate the elections in the four defendant states.
Hours before the Supreme Court order, Trump called the Texas case “the most important in history.”
“If the Supreme Court shows great Wisdom and Courage, the American People will win perhaps the most important case in history, and our Electoral Process will be respected again!” the president wrote on Twitter.
Janita Kan contributed to this report.
