US Supreme Court rejects Texas lawsuit seeking to overturn 2020 presidential election results

WASHINGTON - The US Supreme Court on Friday rejected a lawsuit from Texas, which is supported by President Donald Trump in a bid to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in four battleground states.

"The State of Texas's motion for leave to file a bill of complaint is denied for lack of standing under Article III of the Constitution," the highest court wrote. "Texas has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections."

"All other pending motions are dismissed as moot," the three-sentence order said.

The ruling is widely seen as a death blow to Trump's efforts to reverse Democrat Joe Biden's projected Electoral College victory. The justices also turned away an appeal from Pennsylvania Republicans on Tuesday.

The Supreme Court "decisively and speedily rejected the latest of Donald Trump and his allies' attacks on the democratic process," Biden's spokesman Mike Gwin said in a statement.

"This is no surprise - dozens of judges, election officials from both parties, and Trump's own Attorney General have dismissed his baseless attempts to deny that he lost the election," Gwin said.

Trump's attorney filed a motion on Wednesday with the Supreme Court after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton alleged that new voting processes in key swing states of Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic skewed the presidential election results.

Over 12 states where Trump won the popular vote, as well as more than 120 Republican lawmakers, filed briefs in support of Texas's action, while about two dozens states and territories that Biden won filed their own briefs in opposition to Texas's complaint.

All 50 states and Washington, DC have reportedly certified their election results. Electors are scheduled to meet in their state capital cities on Dec 14 to cast their votes, which will be counted and finalized by the next Congress next month.

Biden, former US vice president, is projected to win 306 electoral votes, compared with 232 for Trump. To clinch the White House, a candidate needs at least 270 electoral votes of the 538 in total.

Trump has refused to concede, but dozens of lawsuits challenging the results have been dismissed at the state and federal levels across the country since the November election.