evidence: We asked a spokesperson for Scalise for evidence to back his claim and did not hear back. But his statement mirrors the argument by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who in December sued four battleground states that went for Biden, arguing that their election procedures violated their state laws. "Using the COVID-19 pandemic as a justification, government officials in the defendant states of Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania usurped their legislatures' authority and unconstitutionally revised their state's election statutes," Paxton wrote. He asked the court to bar those states from sending their votes to the Electoral College. [...] The arguments by Paxton and Scalise are based on what election law scholars call the independent legislature doctrine. The gist of it is that Article 2 of the Constitution empowers state Legislatures specifically to choose how electors are selected and to set the time, place and manner for congressional elections.