On May 23, the Maine Supreme Court ruled that Ralph Nader is not entitled to a trial over the Democratic Party’s behavior in 2004. Nader had sought damages from the Democratic Party and its allies, charging that the many challenges and lawsuits the party brought to Nader’s ballot status were not good faith efforts. The case ended up in Maine because somewhat similar lawsuits Nader filed in Washington, D.C., and Virginia, were beyond the statute of limitations. Maine had been one of the states in 2004 in which Democrats had challenged Nader’s petitions, and in which it seemed obvious that the challenge was not made in good faith.

On April 19, 2012, the Maine Supreme Court had ruled that Nader was entitled to a trial. However, before the trial started, Democrats filed a new legal challenge to the trial, and that new attempt (which did not succeed in the lower court) persuaded the State Supreme Court to remove what it had previously seemed to permit. Here is the 15-page opinion.