This is a developing story and will be updated.
The Alaska Department of Law announced Thursday evening the state submitted a letter to the U.S. Supreme Court that adds Alaska to a list of 19 other states supporting a Texas-led lawsuit that would overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Amicus briefs, allow parties not directly involved in a lawsuit to show support in a case before the court, Department of Law explained in the news release announcing the letter.
The announcement comes less than a day after Gov. Mike Dunleavy said in a Facebook post that a shortage of time prevented Alaska from joining in the lawsuit against Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin.
My administration became aware of the invitation to join the election lawsuit filed by Texas against Pennsylvania on the…
Posted by Governor Mike Dunleavy on Wednesday, December 9, 2020
“As governor of Alaska, I have an obligation to thoroughly understand the facts at hand before committing to such a suit,” Dunleavy said in a Wednesday night post. “I’ll be the first to admit that I was disappointed that we didn’t have enough time to thoroughly review the details. Had this not been the case, we may have come to a different decision.”
Thursday evening, Dunleavy said in a separate Facebook post that he agreed with acting Attorney General Ed Sniffen Jr.
“Signing onto cases such as this should never be taken lightly,” Dunleavy said in the post. “While this case concerns election integrity, it also has an impact on state’s rights. As Alaskans, we should all be careful about involving ourselves in the inner workings of other states. However, the issue of election integrity impacts all of us, and the question of free and fair elections must be answered in order for Americans to have confidence in our system.”
Today, Alaska's attorney general joined in the Texas lawsuit on election integrity. I agree with the AG that the…
Posted by Governor Mike Dunleavy on Thursday, December 10, 2020
The lawsuit has drawn sharp rebuke from a bipartisan number of state officials from states being sued by Texas, including the Georgia attorney general’s office and Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro.
Shapiro called the suit “a seditious abuse of the judicial process.”
• Contact Ben Hohenstatt at (907)308-4895 or bhohenstatt@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @BenHohenstatt.
