Nothing really new on the topic, but I found this Q & A with Eric Black, the Minnesota political blogger, rather enlightening as a summary of the current state of affairs:
Black Blog
Surprising bit of info about Scalia’s past rulings of which I was unaware.
Oral arguments are underway before the MN Supreme Court. They’re only supposed to last an hour or so. The hearing is being streamed live on the Minneapolis Star-Tribune website.
The Court will not hear any more oral arguments aftre this morning, but will probably take a couple of weeks to issue its decision.
That does not mean he wont change his mind this time. His political slant is clear . Roberts slant is clear. They know who they work for.
It won’t go to them, because they’ll deny cert.
Orals have concluded. The Court is adjourned. A decision is “forthcoming.”
It’s hard to get a read. They drilled both sides very well.
And regardless of the arguments, I think Franken’s lawyer is a much better lawyer.
The attorney who was arguing for Coleman, Joe Friedberg, is well-respected, but may not be giving it 100% of his passion. He has a fairly high profile media presence in the Twin Cities (he’s a regular guest on local talk radio), and he’s not exactly a political conservative or someone who generally supports the GOP. He admitted publicly that he did not vote for Coleman (though I don’t think he said who he did vote for – it might have been Barkley), but joined Coleman’s team for his appeals essentially for the money.
Is it just me, or is that basically meaningless?
Well, yeah…they aren’t going to officially have a decision until they’re done deliberating. It’s incredibly likely to be in favor of Franken, and they may have already decided that based on the paperwork, but they can’t just say “Okay, we already know what we’re deciding, so here it is…” immediately after oral arguments. They’re going to at least appear to deliberate.
So if the US Supreme Court refuses to hear this is this thing over?
Plus it’s just very vague as to when the decision will be rendered.
NEVER!!! Or yes, there’ll be nowhere else to appeal the decision.
Coleman could file a federal lawsuit rather than take the case to the SC. This would stall things a lot more than a direct appeal which the court almost certainly won’t hear anyway. After he loses in federal court he could then take it to the SC if he really wanted to drag this out to the maximum.
They will not stop until the United Federation of Planets refuses to consider their case, and even then they may appeal to Trantor…
Heck, appeal to the Valar, then if it goes against Coleman, take it right to Eru. Though I doubt Eru would overrule the Valar, especially if Mandos handed down the opinion.
If that doesn’t work out, he could try Melkor. But that’d have to be a rejection of the legitimacy of the rule of Eru, so it’d be a real longshot.
Does anyone else see the irony here?
The Arisian councel effectively disbanded when Mentor left the plenum. I suppose the Children of the Lens could pass judgement.
Better?
I think Coleman would rather appeal to Emperor Palpatine to disband the Senate, rather than let Franken be seated. At this point, Coleman’s fully committed to this tactic and he can’t just jump off without admitting he’s a hack.
No, it’s an indication that they plan to issue a ruling soon (in legal time).
Otherwise they could have said that the matter will be ‘under consideration’ or just not said anything at all.
It probably means that they had mostly made up their minds already based on all the documentary evidence in the case, and the oral arguments were just to clarify any last questions they had.
Forget a new election. Coleman lost at every court. He is through legally. He is just obstructing Franken from his seat as long as possible.