The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday rejected a lawsuit from the Texas attorney general that sought to overturn election results in four battleground states despite there being no evidence of widespread fraud.

The high court said 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." That was after the court rejected a separate request from Pennsylvania Republicans seeking to overturn the election on Tuesday.

Before declining to hear the Texas case, the court had received mixed messages from elected officials in Montana about the impact it could have on future elections.

Gov. Steve Bullock, a Democrat, filed a brief urging the court to reject the lawsuit on Thursday, while U.S. Rep. Greg Gianforte, the governor-elect, joined more than 100 other House Republicans in a brief saying the case should be heard.

Montana's Republican attorney general, Tim Fox, joined 16 other state attorneys general in a separate brief supporting the lawsuit, which was filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Tuesday.

The lawsuit relied on a bogus assertion that Joe Biden's chances of winning the presidential election were "less than 1 in a quadrillion" and sought to invalidate millions of ballots in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin before the Electoral College convenes on Monday.

President-elect Biden, who won the popular vote by a margin of more than 7 million, is expected to receive 306 electoral votes to President Donald Trump's 232. Dozens of unsuccessful post-election lawsuits have failed to bolster any of Trump's claims of widespread fraud or irregularities.

Officials in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin fired back at Texas for attempting to intervene in their states' elections, with Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro calling the suit a "seditious abuse of the judicial process" based on a "surreal alternate reality."

In his court filing, Bullock noted the Trump campaign and the Republican National Convention unsuccessfully sued over Montana's election plans in September, and he argued the Texas case threatened to disenfranchise voters.

"Texas chose not to include the state of Montana, where President Trump and other Republicans were successful in a mail ballot election conducted to reduce the impact of COVID – underscoring, of course, that this action is less about election integrity than it is about attempting to overturn the will of the electorate," Bullock's brief states. "But if Texas is successful in its suit, it would destabilize the results of elections in Montana and any other state that took valid state-law actions to minimize the impact of the virus on voting, including states that delivered victories to Republican candidates using mail ballots."

An announcement from Fox's office on Wednesday said only state legislatures can establish “the times, places and manner of holding elections," meaning governors' election directives are legally flawed. Yet Fox acknowledged the Texas case was a longshot, having been filed after the election. All 50 states and Washington, D.C. had certified their votes as of Wednesday.

“While the odds of the U.S. Supreme Court accepting Texas’s belated lawsuit against Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are slim at best, the case raises important constitutional questions about the separation of powers and the integrity of mail-in ballots in those defendant states,” Fox said in a statement, adding that the court should hear the case "to address these concerns and bring much-needed finality to this election.”

Like Fox and Gianforte, U.S. Sen. Steve Daines of Montana had not publicly recognized Biden's victory as of Friday, nor had Congressman-elect Matt Rosendale, who will succeed Gianforte in the House. But Republican Secretary of State Corey Stapleton, Montana's top election official, was quick to do so when the outcome of the presidential race became clear.

"I have supported you, Mr. President, we (Montana) have supported you – and @realDonaldTrump accomplished some incredible things during your time in office! But that time is now over," Stapleton wrote on Twitter on Nov. 7. "Tip your hat, bite your lip, and congratulate @JoeBiden. Blessings on you and your family."

Reporter Chad Sokol can be reached at 758-4434 or csokol@dailyinterlake.com