Some of the nation’s leading conservatives have joined Republicans in Congress penning a letter urging swing states to “exercise their plenary power” to call up electors to the Electoral College. They say that officials in these states violated the Constitution through their orders.
The letter was signed by dozens of prominent conservatives, including Judicial Watch President Thomas Fitton; Brent Bozell of the Media Research Center; Citizens United President David Bossie; Jenny Beth Martin, chairman of Tea Party Patriots Citizen Fund; William L. Walton, president of the Council for National Policy; and dozens more.
The letter, posted on Dec. 10, said: “The evidence overwhelmingly shows officials in key battleground states—as the result of a coordinated pressure campaign by Democrats and allied groups—violated the Constitution, state and federal law in changing mail-in voting rules that resulted in unlawful and invalid certifications of [Joe] Biden victories.”
They contended that President Donald Trump is the rightful victor over former Vice President Joe Biden.
The authors of the letter singled out state legislatures in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin, Nevada, and Michigan to “exercise their plenary power under the Constitution and appoint clean slates of electors.”
Meanwhile, they said, “Both the House and Senate should accept only these clean Electoral College slates and object to and reject any competing slates in favor of [Biden].”
Their argument is a similar one made by President Trump’s lawyers, Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis, in recent days to several state Houses and Senates while presenting allegations of voter fraud and irregularities. The two said that the members of the legislature can reclaim their Constitutional power by selecting a competing slate of electors to the Electoral College, which meets Dec. 14.
It came after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Supreme Court against the states of Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Paxton argued these states violated the Constitution by making last-minute changes against voter laws, putting the entire presidential election at risk.
Several states have filed an amicus brief in support of Paxton’s lawsuit, while more than 100 U.S. House lawmakers also filed a brief to support the petition.
Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia filed a legal brief opposing the lawsuit request also on Dec. 10.
Paxton’s suit says the four key states “violated the Electors Clause of the Constitution because they made changes to voting rules and procedures through the courts or through executive actions, but not through the state legislatures.”
Attorneys general for the states responded on Thursday, with Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro writing that Texas is attempting to “disenfranchise millions of voters” who cast ballots in the Nov. 3 election. “The court should not abide this seditious abuse of the judicial process, and should send a clear and unmistakable signal that such abuse must never be replicated,” he added.
–Wire services
