Michigan state legislature closes offices due to 'credible threats of violence'

The U.S. Supreme Court late Friday officially put to rest a brazen eleventh-hour attempt by the state of Texas and Republican allies of President Donald Trump to throw out millions of votes in four states and overturn Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.

In an unsigned, single-page order, the court rejected a lawsuit brought by Texas, citing a lack of standing under Article III of the Constitution. In dismissing the case, the court said Texas had no "cognizable interest" in how Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Georgia conduct their own elections.

The decision, coming just three days before the Electoral College meets to finalize the presidential selection, shut down what Trump had called "perhaps the most important case in history" without the justices getting into the merits of arguments on either side.

For more on the critical ruling, read ABC News' full story.

-ABC News' Devin Dwyer

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., excoriated the Supreme Court lawsuit from Texas seeking to overturn the presidential election results in key states, writing in a letter to colleagues on Friday that it is "an act of flailing GOP desperation" which "violates the principles enshrined in our American Democracy."

Quoting the Pennsylvania attorney general's brief calling it a "seditious abuse of the judicial process," she also accused  congressional Republicans who have supported the case of betraying their oaths of office and "subverting the Constitution."

The letter to colleagues comes after at least one Democratic member of the House called on Pelosi to refuse to seat incoming GOP representatives who signed onto the brief.

-ABC News' Benjamin Siegel

Biden and Harris formally introduced newly nominated and appointed members of their administration from Wilmington, Delaware, Friday afternoon, showing off several familiar faces, be it from the Obama administration or from Capitol Hill.

For director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, a position which does not require Senate confirmation, Biden picked Susan Rice. Rice served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and later as national security adviser in the Obama administration.

In her remarks, Rice laid out the path of her ancestors on both sides who overcame adversity -- a paternal great grandfather who was born a slave in South Carolina and maternal grandparents who immigrated from Jamaica with no education and worked to send their children to college, leading to her mother’s role in creating the Pell Grant. 

“Now at the foot of yet another bridge between crisis and opportunity, I'm honored and excited to take on this role. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris's vision for our future is expansive but achievable," Rice said, stressing her excitement to serve again and the need to develop policies that break down racial barriers that hold all Americans back.

Rep. Marcia Fudge, who has represented Ohio's 11th Congressional District for the last 12 years has been tapped for secretary of Housing and Urban Development and talked about the importance of housing in America and the need to give people hope amid  America’s ongoing crisis.

“Perhaps most importantly of all, we will help people believe once again that their government cares about them, no matter who they are. That we understand their problems, as the president-elect often recalls his father's words,” she said.

Biden's nominee for secretary of agriculture, Tom Vilsack, seemed to address some of the criticism of his previous tenure at USDA (he held the same Cabinet position he's nominated for throughout the Obama administration) by promising to deal with systemic inequities. 

Vilsack also mentioned his support for Rep. Jim Clyburn's 10/20/30 plan, an effort the South Carolina congressman said aims to help counties that had a poverty level of more 20% for more than three decades. Those communities would receive at least 10% of federal funds from a specific program. When asked in 2019 if he considered the measure a form of reparations, Clyburn said the measure "absolutely" is.

Biden's pick for secretary of veterans affairs, Dennis McDonough, former President Barack Obama's White House chief of staff, pledged to make the department more inclusive to all veterans, particularly women, veterans of color and members of the LGBTQ community. 

Biden's appointed Katherine Tai to U.S. trade representative, who began by recalling her parents' immigrant story of her father, a researcher at Walter Reed, and her mother, who still works at the National Institutes of Health developing treatments for opioid addictions. She also stressed the role trade can play to create opportunities and lift people out of poverty and the need to rebuild relationships around the globe.

-ABC News' Molly Nagle, John Verhovek and Beatrice Peterson

Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., has called on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to refuse to seat those Republicans who signed on to a brief supporting the Texas lawsuit seeking to throw out millions of votes when the next Congress is sworn in next year. 

"Stated simply, men and women who would act to tear the United States government apart cannot serve as Members of the Congress," he said. "These lawsuits seeking to obliterate public confidence in our democratic system by invalidating the clear results of the 2020 presidential election undoubtedly attack the text and spirit of the Constitution, which each Members swears to defend."

“The House still retains the right to decide who is seated,” Pelosi said in 2018, amid concerns of fraud impacting the election in North Carolina's Ninth Congressional District. “Any member-elect can object to the seating or the swearing in of another member-elect, and we’ll see how that goes.”

-ABC News' Benjamin Siegel