Two more states have filed a Supreme Court brief on Friday in support of an improbable Texas lawsuit that seeks to overturn the election results in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Georgia. The lawsuit, filed by Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton with support in 17 states and from more than 100 House Republicans, can now also add the very real and absolutely not made up states of “New Nevada” and “New California” to the list of backers.
“New California State and New Nevada State 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,” writes Pahrump, Nevada attorney Robert E. Thomas III, in the brief. It’s totally possible that these two states have been impacted by changes in election laws, just not within the United States because, well, they don’t exist.
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While Paxton’s lawsuit focuses on battleground states where Trump lost to President-elect Joe Biden, Thomas’s brief spends more time attacking Democratic Governors Steve Sisolak of Nevada and Gavin Newsom of California, which is spelled "Newsome" throughout. The brief also continues Thomas's apparent advocacy for secession from Nevada and California in order to form their “New” state counterparts.
It didn’t take long for New Nevada and New California to go viral online. The weeks since the election — and the entire year, for that matter — have been so bonkers that adding a couple of imaginary states to the mix just feels like more of the same chaotic energy of 2020 at this point. One person responding to the brief wondered, “How the hell did we get New Nevada and New California, before the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico become states?”
Another person mocked Trump’s recent false claim that no presidential candidate had ever lost the presidency while winning Florida and Ohio, because it seems that Trump had his states mixed up. In reality, “No candidate has ever won New Nevada and New California but lost the presidency.” Meanwhile, someone noted that this latest brief “takes this Texas case to circus level. It was already ridiculous, but this makes a total mockery of the court.”
While there is nothing legally stopping anyone from filing an amicus brief in support of a plaintiff or defendant, it’s still absolutely wild to see two imaginary states join the intensifying political battle over the presidential election. As the never-ending election drags on, Trump has not only made history as one of the most hated presidents ever, he’s also the first to receive support from two states that don’t exist. At this point, we can’t make this stuff up.