Wisconsin Supreme Court refuses to hear Trump’s lawsuit to overturn loss

It is the latest in long line of courtroom defeats for outgoing president

Wisconsin’s Supreme Court has rejected Donald Trump’s lawsuit to overturn his election loss in the state to Joe Biden.

It is the latest in a string of courtroom defeats for the outgoing president in battleground states he lost to Mr Biden.

Mr Trump had asked the court to throw out 221,000 ballots in Wisconsin’s two biggest Democratic counties amid allegations they were administered incorrectly.

A recount showed that Mr Biden won by 20,700 votes and the claims were earlier rejected by election officials.

Mr Trump wanted the state’s supreme court to take the case directly, arguing there was not enough time for it to make its way through lower courts before presidential electors cast their votes on 14 December.

Lawyers for Governor Tony Evers and the Wisconsin Department of Justice argued that the law required the case to start in lower courts first.

The defeat is striking as the court is controlled by conservative justices.

One conservative member of the bench, Brian Hagedorn, sided with the court’s three more liberal members in refusing the case. 

“We do well as a judicial body to abide by time-tested judicial norms, even — and maybe especially — in high-profile cases," he wrote in an opinion.

“Following the law governing challenges to election results is no threat to the rule of law.”

Mr Trump has also filed a federal lawsuit in Wisconsin to challenge absentee voting, arguing it discriminates against “able-bodied voters", and that drop-off ballot boxes were not manned.

"Not content to try to disenfranchise over 200,000 Wisconsinites in state court, the President is now asking a federal court to take Wisconsin’s choice for President away from voters and to give it to politicians," said Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul.

“Democracy doesn’t work that way. No matter how many lawsuits are filed, we’ll keep standing up for Wisconsin voters.”