Those familiar with the operations of the Minnesota Supreme Court say that the Court normally will notify opposing counsel in a case on Monday of a given week before announcing their findings on Thursday of the same week. Thus, Court watchers have been patiently waiting, ever since the judges heard arguments on the appeal by losing Senate Candidate Norm Coleman to a lower court ruling declaring Democratic challenger Al Franken the victor.
Once the high court heard arguments June 1st, many observers said they expected to see a ruling from the judges by the middle to the end of June. But right now, this Monday is by the boards with no advance word from the court, and it now seems likely that we are looking at least another week down the road and perhaps more.
One begins to wonder when the general public, already dismayed at the the length of time it has taken to hear and rule on this case, is going to decide that the court system has moved from “deliberative” to “deliberate.”
Let’s review highlights of the timeline since the election itself (anybody remember that night?) way back on November 4th. A quick Google of “days between” reveals that we’re looking at 237 DAYS -- 7 months and 25 days as of this writing – and with the 4th of July coming this weekend, we’ll be over the 8 MONTH mark without a decision in this case.
Election: November 4, 2008 Two Thirds of a Year Ago….
Nov. 18: Initial Count Shows Coleman leads Franken by 215 – Recount mandated.
Dec. 5th: Last day of recount.
Jan. 5th: After review of regular and absentee ballots, Franken holds lead of 225 votes.
Jan. 6th: Coleman contests the count and court begins reviewing which contested ballots will be kept and which denied.
Mar. 31: Court rules 351 absentee ballots were improperly rejected and should be counted.
April 7th: Those votes are tallied and Franken lead grows to 312
Apriil 13: Court rules Franken a winner and dismisses Coleman’s contest.
Apr. 20th: Coleman files appeal with Minnesota Supreme Court.
June 1st: Supreme Court oral arguments for both sides on issues of case.
Now….and counting. Still no signs of a decision after what will likely be at least a month.
Still to come:
Decision by the Court
Possible certification of Election results by MN Governor Tim Pawlenty (R) and possible seating of Franken in the Senate or
Possible Appeal to U.S. Supreme Court by Coleman.
Should that happen, it could be October or later before the case goes before the highest court, although it should also be recognized that the appeal could be denied by SCOTUS and that is not all that unlikely. As some have noted, were the justices in Washington to take on the case, it might open the door to arguments relating to the Bush V. Gore battle in the 2000 Presidential Election and the vote count in Florida. It is clear the justices were not really proud of their findings in that case and in fact went out of their way to state that they viewed it as relating to that situation only. They are not eager to find it being brought up in a matter like this.
Also unknown is whether Pawlenty will move to sign the election certification if the MN Supreme Court rules in Franken’s favor. Doing so would provide the legal clearance (absent a Coleman appeal) to have Franken seated in Washington. Recent quotes from Pawlenty seem to indicate he would, but others are arguing he still has wiggle room.
Meanwhile, it is no secret that at least some in the GOP leadership would absolutely love to see another appeal filed to drag the matter out still further and make it more difficult for the Democrats to get to a 60-vote majority in the Senate. While that figure sounds like a great victory, it should also be noted that because of the shaky nature of Democratic support from folks like Ben Nelson of Nebraska, and the opposition discipline of the GOP in most cases, haviing 60 votes does not always give the Democrats a bullet-proof majority.
One recognizes that courts move with deliberate speed in deciding weighty matters, but Minnesota has now been without one of its two U.S. Senators for what is about to become six months since Coleman’s seat became vacant in January, and as noted…eight months since the election itself.
It took over five weeks for the Minnesota high court to even get to hearings on the issues involved and while I am not an attorney, I have to ask, in a case of this importance, how it can take over 2.5 months since Coleman's appeal filing in April and still not have reached a decision. The appeal is essentially over issues of law and not issues which are any great surprise since they were at the core of the original dispute between the parties at the lower court level.
I also recognize that the MN High Court realizes that their finding will be potentially appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court and will undoubtedly be attacked vigorously by the losing side and its most fervent advocates, so they would be expected to try and craft a unanimous and strong decision.
But as of now, the length of time it has taken to decide this case is moving from careful consideration to what increasingly could be seen as deliberate delay. Justices like to claim they are not subject to the whims of public opionion, but they also must be aware that too much delay in this case is only going to increase public cynicism of the legal system.