On December 4, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth refused to re-open the matter of whether Ralph Nader should pay approximately $80,000 in court costs, over the 2004 petition. Nader had asked that the matter be re-opened, given that earlier this year, the Attorney General indicted many people who challenged Nader’s petitions for using state resources instead of their own resources.
Nader is free to ask the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to reverse the Commonwealth Court, and he and others are also free to file a federal case that would argue that candidates and political parties may not be charged money to pay for election administration. The recent federal case in Wilkes-Barre, that found a violation of the U.S. Constitution because the city forced proponents of an initiative campaign to pay $11,000 for the costs of invalidating their petition, may help.
In Pennsylvania all state court judges (Commonwealth Court, Superior Court and Supreme Court) are elected in closed primaries and partisan general elections. After ten years in office they are up for a yes/no retention vote. Only one statewide judge was ever voted out in a retention election. So once their party picks them as their candidate, if they win the general election, they have a job for life (until the mandatory retirement age of 70). In Pennsylvania federal court is the only real option.
what the courts seem to lack is common sense
one of the Bonusgate defendants has already cut a plea deal with the AG
the Grand Jury presentment lays out the criminal conspiracy very plainly
the Court on technicalities throws Justice off the cliff
God help the citizens of Pennsylvania
Ask yourself where the ACLU is when civil rights violations of would be candidates and their supporters are documented in criminal prosecutions of state employees and further documented in reports to the Federal Election Commission.Republican law firms whose client base has been attacked by Nader gets sweet revenge by offering pro bono assistance of hundreds of hours of work for Democratic party operatives.
Not since its surrender in the red baiting 50s has the ACLU looked so pathetic and feckless.
A number of Republican lawyers actually represented Nader in the original challenge case. The Court help simultaneous hearings in a number of Counties (at that time County Boards of Elections maintained the voter registration lists)forcing Nader to have lawyers at each location or lose by default.
Part of the problem with Nader’s current attempt to have the courts reconsider is that it is based upon “indictments” rather than convictions or guilty verdicts. Once verdicts are handed down Nader would have a better case. IMHO Nader filed to re-open the case in 2008 as an attepmt to discourage the Democrats from challenging his 2008 nomination Papers.
Is the gerrymander minority rule oligarchy in PA even worse than the old rotted southern State regimes ???
I could not agree with Steve Conn more.
The vaunted American Civil Liberties Union,
so glorious in their defense of stinking
Nazis marching down main street in heavily
Concentration Camp Survivor Skokie [Illinios]!
They sure have done NOTHING for me, a straight
male WASP, on a number of occations! Maybe,
like the GOP, they are way past their prime?
——–Don Lake, ‘Used Abused not Amused’
To Demo Rep:
Yes