Pseudo states ‘New California’ and ‘New Nevada’ back Texas election lawsuit

Two pseudo states filed an amicus brief Friday backing the Texas lawsuit seeking to overturn the election results in four battleground states won by President-elect Joe Biden.

In a 13-page brief filed with the Supreme Court, “New California State” and “New Nevada State” argue they are “directly impacted by the arbitrary and capricious changes in election laws and procedures occur with unfortunate regularity in the current States of California and Nevada.”

New California State and New Nevada State are movements seeking to form new states from rural counties. New California declared its independence in 2018 in an effort to become the 51st state.

The legal brief filed Friday argues that in-person and absentee votes were unconstitutionally handled differently across counties in California and Nevada. It also alleged that those who registered to vote on Election Day were treated differently than those who registered at least 30 days before the election.

The brief argued that “disparate treatment is a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.”

The brief also alleges that the states took arbitrary actions to change voting laws without consulting their state legislature, in violation of the Constitution.

The brief was filed by Robert E. Thomas III, chairman of the New Nevada State movement.

“Where as the state of Texas is talking about their injury in theory…we have been injured in fact,” Thomas said in a short phone interview with The Hill on Friday. “By the arbitrary actions of in this case, Gov. [Gavin] Newsom [D] in California, who is acting as a dictator and not even consulting the legislature, and Gov. [Steve] Sisolack [D] in Nevada is also not consulting the legislature, and is acting very arbitrarily.”

The amicus brief is in support of a lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R), who is asking the Supreme Court to prevent electors from Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia and Pennsylvania from certifying Biden’s victory. Paxton alleges the states’ mail-in voting efforts during the pandemic were unconstitutional.

Attorneys general from 18 other red states have joined the lawsuit.

An attorney for President Trump filed a motion this week to intervene in the suit, and Trump reportedly asked Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to argue its merits should the Supreme Court decide to hear the case. In addition, more than 100 House Republicans signed an amicus brief backing the suit, several of whom represent the defendant states.

The overwhelming majority of lawsuits filed by the Trump campaign and GOP allies seeking to overturn election results have been unsuccessful.

—Updated at 3:36 p.m.