Nessel, in a Thursday filing, asked justices to “summarily dismiss” the legal challenge from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, arguing it is “without factual foundation or a valid legal basis” and would make the Supreme Court “the arbiter of all future national elections.”
The lawsuit seeks to delay the upcoming Electoral College vote and prohibit Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Georgia from casting electors for Biden, who won the popular vote in all four states. Biden is expected to receive 306 electoral votes, well over the 270 necessary to become president, when electors meet at 2 p.m Monday nationwide. The Texas complaint alleges that officials in Michigan and other battleground states “gutted the safeguards for absentee ballots through non-legislative actions” during the COVID-19 pandemic. It repeats disputed claims over absentee ballot counting in Detroit and asks justices to direct Legislatures to ignore popular votes and appoint their own electors.