Coleman-Franken appeal: June 1 is Supreme Court ‘expedited’ hearing
The Minnesota Supreme Court set its schedule for Norm Coleman's appeal, and the five justices will hear arguments on June 1.
Saying it will proceed on "an expedited basis," the Court ordered (PDF) Coleman's appeal brief to be submitted by next Thursday, April 30. Al Franken's side must respond by May 11. Coleman will get a shot to reply to that response by May 15. And then a hearing is set for June 1.
The court didn't move with the swiftness that Franken's side sought. In fact, the Supreme Court adopted exactly the timetable Coleman sought. Franken's lawyers sought to have the argument as early as next week. The judges denied that.
Thus, we are into June and, apparently, no second senator until seven months beyond Election Day.
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Comments (12)
OK... So when can the citizens of the state of Minnesota, as a class, sue former Senator Coleman, his legal team and the National Republican Party for their bad faith efforts to use our state (and probably federal) legal systems to keep our properly-elected second senator from being seated?
The legal suits alleging that money was funneled to Laurie Coleman's insurance company by Kazeminy have been delayed a bit. When will those hearings begin? May and June could be interesting months.
The Minnesota Supreme Court is proceeding with an extraordinary lack of urgency.
This is "expedited"? Why is the Supreme Court, of all institutions, taking this lackadasical approach to what most Minnesotans think is a critical issue that needs a fast resolution? Can't they be forced to move faster? This is outrageous!
I'm as frustrated as the next guy about the recount. However, if this doesn't go at a cautious pace, Republicans in this state will be bellyaching about this for years after I'm dead. By doing this slow and methodical, it will essentially shut up the principle Republican whiners.
How can Coleman be so self-destructive? He could have conceded with some self-respect and in the good graces of most Minnesotans, but no, he has to do the GOP's dirty work. In so doing, he is certainly ending his public, and probably private, career in Minnesota. What a shameful legacy.
"So when can the citizens of the state of Minnesota, as a class, sue former Senator Coleman, his legal team and the National Republican Party for their bad faith efforts to use our state (and probably federal) legal systems to keep our properly-elected second senator from being seated?"
I am as partisan a Democrat as it's possible to imagine. But I am here to tell you, that Norm Coleman in pursuing his legal remedies has done nothing wrong. Indeed he owes it to his supporters, and to all Minnesotans really, to ensure as best he can that last November's election was fair and this votes are counted.
My beef, increasingly, is with the courts which have allowed these actions to proceed at a pace that would be the envy of snails. We have been at this for six months now. The high priced lawyers on all sides have had more than enough time to prepare their positions on the relevant issues. It is simply not the case, that these issues will be argued better next month than they would be next week.
It's time for our courts to pay more attention to the right of all Minnesotans to have two senators, than the right of wealthy lawyers to a good night's sleep.
The Minnesota Supreme Court's schedule is outrageous. I have been pleased with the transparency and seriousness of the process so far but please, doesn't anyone have a sense of urgency.
Six weeks after the recount court panel issued its ruling, six weeks!, the Supreme Court can finally get around to hearing the case.
As I said -- outrageous!
I thought I read somewhere here on MinnPost that according to the law governing this, the MN Supremes were to basically drop everything and hear this case first... Wouldn't they demand briefs to be filed as quickly as possible? If one of the sides objected to the fast timeline, they have every right to do so and ask for relief... but shouldn't the court be demanding a quicker timeline?
Why does this process need to take so long? Is there some possibility that another constitutional amendment will be enacted in the interim that will resolve the issues.
The text of the constitution has been set for a while now, the case law is out there. The facts are unclear, but nothing is going to happen in the next five weeks for five years for that matter that will make them clearer. Come on guys, earn those million dollar legal fees and let's get this thing going. There is nothing to be gained by depriving Minnesotans of their constitutional right to two senators for another five weeks.
I guess the only good thing to come out of this "expedited" order is that if all the legal scholars are correct and Coleman loses at the SC, there will be super increased political pressure to end this thing then and there.
Maybe Coleman doesn't care about political pressure at this point, but Tpaw does, and the middle of June will be long enough to sign a certificate of election.
Follow the logic! Minnesota's election system is so good that it prevented the wrong person from being elected even though the margin was a few hundred votes. It is the best in the United States of America. The fact that Al Franken won the senate seat is indisputable. The machines counted, the counties recounted with everyone watching, the canvassing board counted, and the contest court counted and all said Norm Coleman lost. Al Franken has been certified by the State Canvassing Board and the State Contest Panel. That is four times that the state has said that Al Franken won the election. So the Supreme court would have to throw 6 months of the work of the citizens and the courts of Minnesota into the trash can and execute another Bush vs. Gore decision. They would have approve to counting votes that are illegal under Minnesota law. Ain't gonna happen. The arrogance of Norm Coleman to put his welfare above the welfare of the state of Minnesota has turned the whole state against the republican party. Comments in any election article now run 4 to 1 in favor of Al Franken. My comments always have 4 to 1 margins or better agreeing with them. Sometimes there are over a 100 approvals. Let's get this straight. There were 12,500 ballots that were not counted. All but 1300 of them were shown at the county level, at the canvassing board level, and at the contest court level to be illegal according to Minnesota law. They can never be counted. Now Norm Coleman has cherry-picked 40% of the illegal ballots and is trying to get them counted. That is his whole case. Of the 1300 counted, Al Franken won by 60% to 40%. You can't count illegal ballots but if you could and you counted all of the 11000 remaining, Al Franken would win by 2500 votes. If Coleman wants to count all the votes, then count all 11000 illegal votes and not the ones Ben Ginsberg picked. Coleman's argument is totally bogus. It could be made in any election in this country. Thousands of election officials in any state are not going to follow election rules exactly. The whole argument is preposterous. This is a blatant effort to steal this election from the citizens of Minnesota. The Supreme Court of Minnesota will not endorse that!