US Supreme Court dismisses Trump's bid to overturn election result

The US Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a bid by Texas to overturn the results of the presidential election, which Republican Donald Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden, in a fresh setback for the outgoing president.

The longshot suit lodged late Tuesday against four states key in the November 3 vote -- Michigan, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin -- challenged Biden's victory in each jurisdiction. 

The justices in a brief order rejected the bid by Texas to file the extraordinary challenge targetting Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin directly with the Supreme Court, as is allowed in some instances of litigation between states under a legal doctrine called "original jurisdiction."

The order said Texas did not have a legal standing to bring the claim.

"Texas has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another state conducts its elections," the court said in the unsigned order.

The case was filed on Tuesday by the Republican attorney general of Texas, a Trump ally, against Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The Republican president on Wednesday filed a motion to intervene and become a plaintiff.

It was backed by 106 Republican lawmakers and 17 state attorneys general.

Texas had asked the justices to throw out the election results in the four states. Biden won all four states. Trump had won them in the 2016 election.

Biden spokesman Mike Gwin said the ruling was "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," he said.

Texas alleged that the results in the other four states were "unconstitutional" because of their heavy use of "fraud-prone" mail-in votes during the coronavirus pandemic. It offered no proof of significant fraud, and didn't challenge the use of mailed ballots in states Trump won.

The suit cited numerous alleged examples of potential fraud already rejected by lower courts.

Trump's campaign and his allies already had lost in numerous lawsuits in state and federal courts challenging the election results. Trump has falsely claimed he won the November 3 election and has made baseless allegations of widespread voting fraud and a system "rigged" against him. 

State election officials have said they have found no evidence of such fraud. Lawyers for Trump and his allies have failed to present evidence in court of the type of fraud he has alleged.

On Tuesday the Supreme Court also refused his bid to overturn his loss in Pennsylvania. 

Trump had hoped that the high court, whose bench he has tipped solidly to the right, would intervene in his favour.

In 2000, the Supreme Court halted a recount in Florida, where George W Bush was only 537 votes ahead of Democrat Al Gore, allowing the Republican to win the election.

The lawsuit came as all 50 states plus Washington, DC have formally certified their vote tallies, opening the way to convene the Electoral College.

Biden, in the November 3 vote, snagged 51.3 percent of the ballots compared to Trump's 46.9 percent, a seven million vote margin. 

The Electoral College is set to affirm Biden's win on December 14, and he will be sworn in on January 20.

(with inputs from agencies)