President Trump’s long-shot effort to get the Supreme Court to overturn the Nov. 3 election results would reportedly be argued before the justices by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.
If the justices accept a challenge by Texas officials against the results in four other states, the New York Times reported Wednesday, Mr. Trump asked Mr. Cruz to handle the case and the Texan accepted.
The Times cited “a person familiar with the discussion.”
Before becoming a senator, Mr. Cruz was the solicitor-general for his home state and handled the oral arguments before the justices in nine cases.
Mr. Cruz, ironically, was the last Republican primary opponent standing in the 2016 nomination race in which Mr. Trump won a stunning upset. He also gave an “endorsement” of Mr. Trump at the presidential convention that was so tepid and back-handed that some of the delegates began booing from the floor.
Now, arguing the long-shot case before the Supreme Court would effectively put Mr. Trump’s last stand in 2020 in Mr. Cruz’s hands.
The case before the Supreme Court, first filed by Attorney General Ken Paxton of Texas and joined Wednesday by 17 Republican state attorneys-general, argues that four swing states, all won by Mr. Biden, illegally changed their electoral laws via court or executive orders, rather than by methods chosen by their legislatures, as the Constitution states.
Mr. Paxton and his allies want to justices to overturn the certified results in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan and Georgia as irredeemably “tainted.” The plaintiffs are asking the Supreme Court to order the legislatures in those states — all led by Republicans — to pick the Electoral College slates themselves instead.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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