(NEXSTAR) – Democrats in the House sharply criticized support from more than 125 GOP lawmakers who signed an amicus brief supporting a Texas-led effort to overturn the election, a lawsuit that the Supreme Court rejected Friday.
The court’s order was its second this week rebuffing Republican requests that it get involved in the 2020 election outcome. The justices turned away an appeal from Pennsylvania Republicans on Tuesday.
The Electoral College meets Monday to formally elect Biden as the next president.
Trump had called the lawsuit filed by Texas against Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin “the big one” that would end with the Supreme Court undoing Biden’s substantial Electoral College majority and allowing Trump to serve another four years in the White House.
In a brief order, the court said Texas does not have the legal right to sue those states because it “has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections.”
Democrats on Capitol Hill argued that the pursuit was a sham.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) ripped GOP lawmakers who signed the amicus brief, saying in a statement:
“The Court has rightly dismissed out of hand the extreme, unlawful and undemocratic GOP lawsuit to overturn the will of millions of American voters.
The 126 Republican Members that signed onto this lawsuit brought dishonor to the House. Instead of upholding their oath to support and defend the Constitution, they chose to subvert the Constitution and undermine public trust in our sacred democratic institutions.”
Missouri Democratic Congressman Emanuel Cleaver said before the court’s decision that he was disappointed 126 of his Republican colleagues were backing a lawsuit to overturn the presidential election.
“We’re going batty crazy in this country right now,” Cleaver said. “There was no fraud or abuse … it’s damaging democracy.”
Rep. Dan Kildee (D-MI) called the lawsuit and the actions of his colleagues “unpatriotic.”
Kildee said he thought lawmakers were supporting the Texas-led lawsuit to throw out millions of legal votes out of fear.
“They are so scared of a tweet from Donald Trump they don’t want to be on his bad list,” Kildee said Friday.
Kansas Republican Congressman Ron Estes, who supported the lawsuit, said the president had a valid legal fight.
“There are various issues throughout our election process and we need to make sure we address those,” Estes said.
Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, who have said previously the court does not have the authority to turn away lawsuits between states, said they would have heard Texas’ complaint. But they would not have done as Texas wanted pending resolution of the lawsuit, and set aside those four states’ 62 electoral votes for Biden.
Three Trump appointees sit on the high court. In his push to get the most recent of his nominees, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, confirmed quickly, Trump said she would be needed for any post-election lawsuits. Barrett appears to have participated in both cases this week. None of the Trump appointees noted a dissent in either case.
Eighteen other states won by Trump in last month’s election, 126 GOP members of Congress and Trump himself joined Texas in calling on the justices to take up the case that sought to stop electors from casting their votes for Biden.
The four states sued by Texas had urged the court to reject the case as meritless. They were backed by another 22 states and the District of Columbia.
Before the court’s decision late on Friday, Brian Morgenstern, White House deputy press secretary, said President Trump wanted the case to be heard because “he believes that there are still important legal and constitutional questions to be answered.”
So far the president’s campaign has filed roughly 50 election lawsuits; 30 have been dropped or rejected and nearly a dozen are still pending.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
