Supreme Court rejects lawsuit that challenges presidential election results

JUNEAU, Alaska (KTUU) - The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected a lawsuit challenging Joe Biden’s election victory, the Associated Press reported Friday.

The state of Alaska joined 19 other states in supporting Texas’ challenge to presidential election results in the Supreme Court.

On Friday, after the Supreme Court decision was announced, Alaska Democratic Party Chair Casey Steinau said, “I am pleased to know that the Supreme Court has faith in our election system and the hard working folks who work to ensure they happen. At the end of the day our elections are run by the American people in whom I also have great faith.”

Sen. Dan Sullivan said the ruling was not a surprise, saying, “The Supreme Court ruled that Texas did not have standing to sue over how another state conducts its elections. The decision speaks for itself and was not surprising.”

The Texas attorney general filed the lawsuit on Tuesday, seeking to overturn the results in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin that saw President-elect Biden win the Nov. 3 election. The Department of Law says that the state of Alaska signed on in support of a brief on Thursday.

The New York Times writes that the attorneys general from those four battleground states filed court documents, strongly denouncing the attempts to overturn the presidential election results. At least 20 state attorneys general are in opposition to the Texas lawsuit.

It would take at least five justices to approve hearing the case, the Supreme Court rejected a request earlier in the week from Pennsylvania Republicans to block certification of the commonwealth’s election results.

Electoral College electors are set to meet on Dec. 14 to formally elect Biden as the next president of the United States.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy said that the state of Alaska supports the effort to examine the results in those four battleground states and wants an expedited decision from the Supreme Court. He said the decision to support the Texas attorney general’s case came down to election integrity.

“I agree with the attorney general that the integrity of this election is a critical bedrock principle of our republican form of government,” the governor said. “There are too many critical questions that need to be answered to give the American people confidence that their vote counts.”

The brief claims that state legislatures should choose electors to the Electoral College, that voting by mail increases the risk of fraud, and that the decision by the Supreme Court to allow Pennsylvania to extend the deadline to receive mail-in ballots was unconstitutional.

The president’s Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency released a statement on Nov. 12, disputing allegations of widespread electoral fraud, saying that the 2020 election “was the most secure in American history.” Dozens of lawsuits have been filed on behalf of the president that have challenged the election results to little success, according to NBC News, which has been tracking the court cases.

Several state Republican lawmakers have also signed on in support of the lawsuit, alleging that “unconstitutional actions, fraud, and other irregularities” had disenfranchised voters.

On Wednesday, the governor took to social media, saying that he and Ed Sniffen, the acting Alaska attorney general, had missed a deadline to file a brief in the Supreme Court. On Thursday, several briefs were filed as several defendants allowed late briefs to be submitted.

“Signing onto cases such as this should never be taken lightly. While this case concerns election integrity, it also has an impact on state’s rights,” the governor said. “As Alaskans, we should all be careful about involving ourselves in the inner workings of other states. However, the issue of election integrity impacts all of us, and the question of free and fair elections must be answered in order for all Americans to have confidence in our system.”