UPDATE, O945 GMT:

The Texas Republican Party is threatening to secede from the US after the Supreme Court blow to Donald Trump.

Chairman Allen West issued a statement on Friday night, “This decision will have far-reaching ramifications for the future of our Constitutional republic. Perhaps law-abiding states should bond together and form a Union of states that will abide by the Constitution.”

ORIGINAL ENTRY: In the latest, perhaps final defeat of Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the Presidential election, the Supreme Court brusquely throws out a lawsuit by the Texas Attorney General which was supported by 17 of his compatriots and 126 of 196 Republican House members.

The Court unanimously rejected an attempt by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to nullify the elections in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, all key states won by President-elect Joe Biden in his 306-232 Electoral College triumph.

Paxton called on the justices to prevent those states’ electors from casting their votes on Monday, letting the state legislatures — all of whom have Republican majority — appoint the representatives in the Electoral College.

But seven of the nine justices ruled, in a brief unsigned order, that Texas lacked standing to pursue the case because it “has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another state conducts its elections”.

Justice Samuel Alito said the court could not close off lawsuits directly filed by states. However, joined by fellow conservative Clarence Thomas, he wrote that he “would not grant other relief”, such as nullification of the votes in the four key states.

Trump had hoped for months that the Supreme Court would back him if he challenged a loss in the November 3 election, supporting his false claim that millions of mail-in ballots are fraudulent. He indicated in late September that he was rushing the confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett so she could be part of a conservative majority overturning the vote.

But on Tuesday, the Court dismissed an attempt by Trump’s Republican allies in Pennsylvania to deny Biden’s triumph by almost 82,000 votes in the state.

See also US Supreme Court Brushes Off Trump Attempt to Overturn Election

Trump: “An Embarrassment to the USA!!!”

On Thursday, Trump had met with Paxton, who is under indictment in a securities fraud case and accused by former employees of abusing his office to aid a political donor, and other state Attorneys General. He opened Friday with the hopeful tweet that the Court would save his stay in the White House.

Eight hours later, he had to bury that hope. He cancelled an appearance at a White House holiday party, with guests told about 8:30 pm that he would not coming down from his residence. Instead, he tweeted:

He continued that the nine justices, three of whom he appointed, had betrayed him: “Within a flash, [the case] is thrown out and gone, without even looking at the many reasons it was brought. A Rigged Election, fight on!”

Retweeting a complaint by his ally, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Trump bellowed, “It is a legal disgrace, an embarrassment to the USA!!!”

Appearing on the hard-right channel NewsMax on Friday night, Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani insisted that the campaign’s legal effort would continue and that his team had planned for “four or five separate cases”.

“We’re not finished, believe me,” he said with a laugh. The campaign announced that it would run new ads on YouTube.

But lawyers for Trump and his allies have now lost 57 of 58 lawsuits. Their only victory affected just a few hundred ballots in Pennsylvania. Judges across federal and state courts have slammed the attorneys for unsupported claims, lack of evidence, and a lack of comprehension of the law.

See also In Pennsylvania, Another Harsh Rejection by US Appeals Court of Trump’s “Stolen Election”

The 106 Republican House members who filed a friend-of-the-court brief, supporting Paxton’s filing, were silent on Thursday night.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who was joined by about 20 other state Attorneys General in resistance to Paxton’s lawsuit, wrote:

Sen. Ben Sasse, one of the few Republican legislators to publicly acknowledge Biden as President-elect, joined Democrat colleagues in his call for resolution. He denounced the disinformation and falsehoods from the Trump campaign: ““Since Election Night, a lot of people have been confusing voters by spinning Kenyan Birther-type, ‘Chavez rigged the election from the grave’ conspiracy theories.”