Franken wins by +312.
The MN Supreme Court (MNSC) hears oral arguments in Coleman v. Franken on Monday, June 1, 9:00am CDT. (Must see TV indeed for any political junkie/junquette.) How quickly will they rule? No set time, but they have been commendably swift on earlier motions. OTOH those were motions and requests, not a full blown appeal. So we'll see.
Some observations on the Court past the Orange fold...
Meet the MN Supremes (Again, for the First Time.)
Who ARE these people who would read over 19,000 pages of trial transcripts from the Election Contest Court (ECC), consider over 1800 exhibits and review the testimony of over 140 witnesses? What sort of people would also read through (with footnotes; this is for all the marbles) Coleman's Appeal Brief (60+ pages, reduced from the 146 in the original Crayola), Franken's Respondent's Brief (50+ pages, with attached HoloDisc that allows a 3-D re-creation of any instant of the Recount from the close of polls on Nov. 4 until today) and Coleman's Reply to Respondent (just under 30 pages and maybe the best work his legal team has done; it rises to the level of lousy)?
Chief Justice Eric Magnuson and Associate Justice G. Barry Anderson were on the State Canvassing Board ruling on challenged ballots and Recount issues. They have quite properly recused themselves from any further involvement in the process, since it would amount to a judge reviewing and appealing their own work.
That leaves 5 other justices. In MN when a vacancy occurs on the Supreme Court the governor appoints a new justice. (I don't know if this is subject to MN Senate confirmation like at the federal level. I suspect someone here will let us know.) The appointment is subject to approval by the voters at the next general election (even numbered years, unless the appointment occurs less than 1 year before such an election; then the appointee gets an extra 2 years before facing the electorate) and approval is for 6 year terms. An appointee CAN be defeated in the election and replaced by the winner of that vote (apparently rather common before 1950; rather rare since then.)
Alan Page, 63; BA Notre Dame '67, JD U Minn. School of Law '78. (Got his JD while employed full time by the NFL.) Asst. Attorney General, State of MN 1985-1993. Trading off his name recognition and work in the AG office defeated a governor appointee and was elected directly in 1992. When Sen. Paul Wellstone was killed in 2002 Page was briefly mentioned as his possible replacement (the MN Democrats eventually settled on Walter Mondale.)
Paul Anderson, 62, BA Macalester Collge '65, JD U. Minn. Law '68. Private practice 71-92. Chief Judge MN Court of Appeals, '92-94. Appointed in '94 (Gov. Carlson R- Normal).
Anderson was re-elected in 2008 (when some Senate race was going on) with 70%+ of the vote. His opposition was Tim Tingelstad who was trying to get on the MN Supreme Court as a "mission from God" (and NOT in the Blues Brothers’ sense either. Think Michele Bachmann sense.... or not. That hurts. I mean, Michele Bachmann and "sense" don’t belong in the same sentence.) The MN Independent nailed Tim der Tingel (and Anderson the winner) here:
http://minnesotaindependent.com/...
Back in December Anderson was the Justice who climbed on Roger Magnuson of Team Coleman in the opening 30 seconds of the opening argument. Magnuson came in with a caution to the Court to avoid becoming another Florida. Anderson snapped off, "This is NOT Florida"... just to establish some turf and pin back Magnuson's ears. Magnuson has not been seen or heard from since that hearing.
Helen Meyer, about 55, BSW, U. Minn, '76, JD William Mitchell College of Law, '82. Founded her own law firm twice (in Al Franken's old suburb of St. Louis Park). A fair bit of arbitration and mediation work. Served on professional boards for trial lawyers and obviously knows here way around a courtroom. Served for 3 years as Gov. Ventura's chief Judicial appointment advisor. Appointed by Ventura (Independently Independent) in '02, going directly from head of a law firm to justice (with no prior time on the bench.)
She was born in St. Joseph, Minnesota and raised on a Stearns County dairy farm, one of seven children. MN Women's Lawyer article from when she was appointed:http://www.mwlawyers.org/...
Lorie Skjerven Gildea, about 49, BA '83, U. Minn.-Morris; JD, magna cum laude, Order of Coif, Georgetown Univ. '86. Private practice 86-93; Univ. Minn.General Counsel '93-'04; Hennepin County Judge '04-'06. Appointed '06 (Pawlenty R-Miser),
Born in Plummer, MN (pop. 400; 40% Norwegian)... My sense is the Order of Coif is NOT a special award for hairstyling, hung on the wall at Inga Ingabritsen's Salon and Nail Emporium...while at U of M led lawsuit v. basketball coach Clem Haskins and recovered $800K for University..... white collar crime cases in her judgeship.... 2008 was her first time facing election; was confirmed by voters with about 55% of the vote
Article for Hennepin County law newsletter when Gildea was appointed county judge in ‘04:
http://hennepin.timberlakepublishing...
Christopher Dietzen, 61, BA '69 and Law degree '73 both Gonzaga Univ. Private practice '73-'04 in Washington state & Minnesota; Judge, MN Court of Appeals '04-'08. Appointed to Supreme Court in late '07 (Pawlenty, R- Piker).
Since Dietzen was appointed late in 2007 he will face voters for the first time in 2010..... Was Pawlenty's campaign lawyer in 2002: campaign was accused of running an improper TV ad; so found, fined $100,000 and spending limit reduced by $500,000.... served as Pawlenty's Judicial appointment advisor (parallel to Meyer's work for Ventura) prior to appointment...
Article from Star Tribune when Dietzen was named in Nov. 2007 here: http://www.startribune.com/...
Politics and Money
As the whole Coleman v. Franken case moved out of the ECC and toward the MNSC in late April a number of stories surfaced regarding the politics of the Justices. In particular Justice Dietzen was pinned down as having made (gasp!) contributions to (gasp!) Republicans, in particular Norm Coleman, and so shouldn't he recuse himself like Magnuson and Anderson?
One of the newest justices, Christopher Dietzen, is facing calls from left-leaning bloggers to step back, too. That's because he was a Coleman donor prior to joining the bench, including $500 in contributions to his Senate fund. ($250 in 2001 and another $250 in 2004.)
Dietzen is not alone in making donations in his pre-judge days:
Lorie Gildea gave to Coleman's 1998 gubernatorial campaign and Helen Meyer cut checks to Democrats years ago, including Wellstone (and perennial Democratic candidate Mike Ciresi)
None of the justices would comment on their donations or their status in the case, a court spokesman said.
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/...
In the next few days its likely the whole matter will re-surface. While I understand the worry I can't share it. By all accounts the amounts are small. Tons of people on Daily Kos making a LOT less money have made contributions larger than $250 to a candidate. Also the contributions are old in the scheme of things. And by all accounts there is no evidence of any other political support (door-knocking, being the campaign lawyer for Barkley, Miami rioting for Brooks Bros. Inc.) For me it would be a lot more worrisome if, say, Alan Page had contributed the legal maximum to Al Franken and given a dozen rally speeches for him and called Norm Coleman "the pyorrhea on the teeth of the Minnesota body politic."
Then too if there was some skullduggery afoot (CAN skullduggery involve a foot? Seems anatomically challenging.) we might have expected to see it before now. There have been several instances of Coleman (and one of Franken) going to the MNSC during the Recount for relief, for a ruling, for an order or injunction. With one exception the Supremes have turned Norm down 5-0 every time. If bias was going to express itself you'd think at least and occasional 4-1 or 3-2 would have shown up by now.
(Franken's motion for a Certificate of Election apart from the governor's office issuing one was also turned down 5-0. The one non-unanimous call was the Dec. 18th, 3-2 decision (Meyer, Gildea, Dietzen v. Page, Anderson) that set up the "both sides agree on disputed, Pile 5 absentee ballots in order for them to count" cantankery. It made for a tedious mess but it is very hard to make a case the process favored Coleman... or Franken.)
But good on Senate Guru and Eric Kleefeld from TPM for raising up the matter. This is just the kind of vigilance the press needs to do and every citizen should exercize toward their public servants.
I am disturbed (but you knew that already) that this issue comes up at all. To me it is a symptom of politicization creeping into places it should not be. While so many here at Kos are of the politically vital, I'm grateful for pootie diaries, recipes, and tributes to, say, John Denver. There is a LOT in life apart from politics and to me it is unsettling that the justice system might be coming under the political storm. (After the outrage of Bush v. Gore, the judicial tragedy inflicted upon Gov. Siegelman, the US Attorney manipulation, and the insult to justice that IS Alberto Gonzales, I completely understand where this is coming from.)
But I don't think the answer is rooting for judges to rule "our way." (And not for a moment am I saying Senate Guru or Kleefeld are calling for this, to be clear.) Much more disturbing is the assault on the justice system in general, verbally ("thats just what some judge says"), contemptuously ("if Obama appoints her then she has to be a liberal, activist, empathetic...") and even physically, as outlined in this diary from Monday:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Folks, to me this attitude puts us on the road to the Weimar Republic stuff and we do NOT want to go there. The Southern Poverty Law Center reports a LOT of the Reichwingers buying guns. To me the answer is NOT to likewise arm the Left (given the availability of guns in this country I think this may have already happened.)
In the late 1920's German gangs from the left & right engaged in huge street battles, mostly with fist and clubs, but with gunfire too. Prisoners were taken by both sides (and then exchanged after negotiations). The police made tons of arrests but then both sides packed the courtrooms to intimidate the judicial system into letting many/most of them go or with slap on the wrist penalties. Both sides had an interest in toppling the rule of law so they could be lawless against the other side.
We are NOT there and we should NOT go there.
Far better for democracy we should back the courts and police (you know, drive the Faux Noise gang crazy by using George Wallace's old slogan, "Law and Order"). Not so much cheering when a ruling upholds "the good side" but when justice is served. I'd whole-heartedly support judges who say not "Baliff, clear the courtroom!" but "Baliff, have the deputies arrest everyone in the courtroom visitor's gallery." Then contempt of court up to 21 days: choice of 21 days solitary or 21 days in a group cell with your most feared ethnic group.
A few rounds like that and even the reptile brains would get the message.
Book Matters
Pre-orders for Recounting Minnesota (the dead-tree collection of these diaries hopefully due out by mid-August) have reached nearly 140 from you people. Just staggering to me... but then receiving grace always leaves me that way.
Cover art development is underway. A certain skinny kid in Orange will be writing a foreword. The copy editors are slogging away at "egregious errors". Fact-checkers are standing by (and we could use a few more of those.) There R even reports spalling arors have bin found, but of course thoz are yust wild rumors. If you'd like your OWN autographed copy of the fall, winter, spring, SUMMER madness that is this series you can order here, domestic or foreign, electronic or traditional:
http://www.wordalchemy.net/...
OK. We all wait for the 1st to arrive. If anything breaks (like Norm's nerve: (sobbing) "I concede, I concede! Mitch McConnell kissed me on the mouth and made me do all these horrible things, He threatened to send me to John Cornyn's ranch with Larry Craig, some jumper cables, a dentist's drill and a, a goat.....") I'll let you know, but for now thats the latest from yust southeast of Lake Wobegon.
Shalom.