The Supreme Court on Thursday shut down an attempt led by Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert to allow Vice President Mike Pence to throw out the Electoral College’s certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s win.
In an unsigned order, the court denied injunctive relief in Gohmert’s appeal after a Texas judge previously ruled against his case. The decision came a day after Pence led both chambers of Congress in certifying Biden’s win.
The Washington Examiner reached out to Gohmert’s office for comment.
Gohmert raised the suit in December, along with a contingent of President Trump’s “shadow electors” who cast protest Electoral College votes for him in Arizona. They argued that Pence had “exclusive authority” to choose which votes are certifiable and the “sole discretion” to determine the legitimacy of votes, per the 12th Amendment.
“Vice-President Pence determines which slate of electors’ votes count, or neither, for that State,” Gohmert’s attorneys wrote in the original complaint, adding, “If no candidate has a majority of 270 elector votes, then the House of Representatives (and only the House of Representatives) shall choose the President.”
Pence released a letter Wednesday shortly before the vote certification began, stating that he did not have the authority under the Constitution to do what Gohmert, as well as Trump, were urging him to do.
“It is my considered judgment that my oath to support and defend the Constitution constrains me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not,” Pence wrote.
Shortly after Pence released his letter, pro-Trump protesters stormed the Capitol building, delaying the certification of the vote until later in the evening.
