House minority leader signs amicus brief for Texas lawsuit challenging election result

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy signed on to an amicus brief for a Texas lawsuit that, if successful, would overturn the result of the election.

The California Republican, along with 19 of his colleagues, were added to the brief on Friday. In total, 126 GOP members of the House have added their names to the brief.

Rep. Mike Johnson, who originally filed the brief and recruited his Republican colleagues to sign on to it, posted on Twitter that the 20 names would have been included in the brief on Thursday but for a "clerical error."

But when reporters asked McCarthy on Thursday if he supported the lawsuit, McCarthy twice declined to answer. "The president has a right for every legal challenge to be heard. He has the right to go to the Supreme Court with it, yes," he said.

Another member of the 20 added was Georgia Rep. Doug Collins. Missing from the list are high-profile Republicans such as Reps. Devin Nunes, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, and Liz Cheney, the third-highest ranking Republican in the House.

The lawsuit, filed by Texas to the Supreme Court, aims to challenge the electoral processes of Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, all battleground states that ultimately went to President-elect Joe Biden.

Texas claims that coronavirus-related changes to each of the state's election procedures violate the U.S. Constitution. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who filed the lawsuit, argues that his state has standing because Texans don't receive their rightful chance to have their voices heard if other state's elections are not conducted properly.

Texas can go directly to the Supreme Court rather than a lower court because it is suing another state. The Supreme Court has "original jurisdiction" in such cases. However, the court has, in other cases, declined to hear suits in which it has that jurisdiction.

So far, 17 other states have filed a brief supporting the Texas lawsuit, including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, and West Virginia.

If the lawsuit were to be successful, which many legal experts say is highly unlikely, the votes of Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin would be thrown out.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court declined to hear a lawsuit brought by Rep. Mike Kelly that demanded Pennsylvania's votes be thrown out on the grounds that its law authorizing universal mail-in voting was unconstitutional. The high court declined to hear arguments in the case because the suit was filed too late.