When Franken gets seated - does he get to collect back pay from January?

Franken has until May 11 to submit their brief and then Coleman has 4 days to reply. If Franken submits his brief sooner than May 11, say May 4, does that move Coleman's next date up or does it just give Coleman an extra week to formulate his response?

I can't imagine that these briefs aren't pretty much ready to go today-it's not like they haven't been working on them for weeks already. The only party that really needs extra time is the court because they're the ones who need to read and mentally process all this paperwork.

Minnesota's judges are in the tank for Coleman/Republicans. They know they can't rule in his favor, so they stretch it out as long as possible. It's utterly ridiculous that they're delaying things a friggin month, talking June 1st, so Minnesota has been without a senator for half the damn year.

I guess that means more delays for the Texas lawsuits related to the funneling of money to Norm's wife

Freaking outrage.

Once again, Republicans are frustrating the will of the electorate by preventing a Democrat who won an election from taking office. Not just any Democrat, either, but one who would be a real progressive.

The bigger picture: I was told at a Party Executive Committee Meeting by a SEIU organizer that it was planned that the EFCA timetable was scheduled for late May in the Senate.

That the House of Rep is already lined up with 225 co-sponsors and the issue in the Senate is cloture where to force compromise with the NOPUBLICANS the Senate needs to have 60 votes to end the debate or filibuster.

Franken represents that vote forcing the NOPUBLICANS into a corner with their Voinovich, Grassley, Snowe, Collins, and especially Spector

I now see if Reid will push back the timetable to coincide with the Minn SC. After oral arguments the decision can't take more than a week.

Then the point comes to a head. The Senate might have to force Pawlenty's hand or will he finally relent to the obvious that indeed it was a close race but the NOPUBLICANS lost.

I was in Washington DC, on the Capital Mall for the BO Inauguration. We were incredibly close to the front in the Yellow Section, so close that when the 21 gun salute went off, seemingly right over our shoulders, I had to look around and ask WTF was THAT!

The relevant point is that after the Swearing In, and the speeches, and the Big Gun Salute.... the Marine One Helicopter bearing Bush away from the scene flew low and right over us... and you know what happened? It's not so widely reported, but EVERYONE, yes EVERYONE, even me, was yelling and shaking fists and raised middle fingers at that helicopter. And though there was an eerie silence where one could hear a pin drop in spite of 2M people on the Mall during the Obama speech, the cheers over Bush's leaving were a thunderous roar of two MILLION very angry people.

For me, that anger stretched all the way back to Florida 2000. Coleman's actions recall those feelings for me and I know I will NOT forget and I will NOT forgive and I will drink a toast on the day of his ignominious fall when his karma comes back to bite him.

Senator Amy Klobuchar was on TV recently and congratulated for her prediction that the contest decision would be when the ice melted on Lake Minnetonka and was right on target. She then gave an estimate that the State Supreme Court decision would be around when it was warm enough to swim in the lake (around Memorial Day). It looks like she's not going to be as close on this one.

I seem to recall that Bush v. Gore at SCROTUM I mean SCOTUS was heard and decided in about 5 days. That seems a much more momentous case than this. Why can't the MNSC do the same? The fact that this schedule may be expedited compared to other cases on their docket is not relevant. Given the extensive coverage of this case in the press and the fact that all the arguments have taken place in public, this should take them no longer than a week to finish. One day for Coleman to submit, one day for Franken to reply, one day for oral arguments, one day for deliberation, and then one day to issue the opinion.

Everyone needs to go over to Coleman's house, and egg the hell out of it. Every night. And TP his trees. Every night.

If he moves, do it to his new place. Every night.

Run him and his family completely out of the state.

Make him suffer for his obstructionism. He's had more than enough chances to win this thing by hook or crook. And has come up short. Now because of his own rage and ego, he's going to punish the people of MN for not electing him? By denying them proper representation and constituent services in Congress?

Screw Him!!!

Said it before, I'll say it again. SCOTUS won't touch this case. The conservative majority had everything to gain by anointing Bush. By putting him in office they guaranteed he would appoint additional conservative judges. Conservative judges in the lower courts meant more cases would be decided in that direction, which means more cases SCOTUS could refuse to hear or affirm without much effort. Conservative justices to the S.Ct. meant the majority would remain the majority. And they gained the support and confidence of Bush and the Republican base.
Here, SCOTUS has nothing to gain. If they rule in Coleman's favor, they piss off the Ds who control the Congress and the WH. Together those branches of power can isolate and undermine SCOTUS. There is also a question whether the Senate could disregard a SCOTUS ruling concerning the election of a senator. Putting Coleman in the senate doesn't change the balance of power, it just prevents the Ds from having one more vote. Early indications are that the Ds will pick up enough seats in 2010 to have a 60+ majority with or without Franken. They can choose not to take the case, rather than rule in Franken's favor, with the same effect, but without blowback.
I suspect the MN S.Ct. is going to do everything to appear to give Coleman every opportunity to exhaust his legal challenges, and then take about 15 min. to reach a decision against him (although they may take a few weeks to appear to be deliberating). The trial court's opinion and memorandum were solid and convincing. All the MN. S.Ct. really needs to say is "Affirmed for the reasons specified by the trial court," and then issue an order to Pawlenty to sign the certificate.

Here is the big issue in this appeal:

For counted absentee ballots, the counters had a fairly broad interpretation of the statute to ensure that most absentee ballots were counted. Did Coleman suffer constitutional harm when the recount court limited the recounted absentee ballots to those which technically comply with the absentee statutory requirements?

Caveats: I'm an attorney, I've handled appeals with very large transcripts, I'm not from Minnesota, and I'm not licensed to practice law in Minnesota. That being said (and I don't want to sound disrespectful), in a case where the citizens of Minnesota are having to make do with 1 senator instead of 2, this timeline makes no sense.

This isn't a situation where some appellate attorneys are handed a transcript from a trial they know nothing about and told to look for issues to appeal. Both sides already know the issues, both sides already know the relevant caselaw, and both sides probably have that part of their briefs already written (rough drafts at least). Just about all that's left is to cite to the appropriate parts of the record, do a little wordsmithing, one or two rewrites, and they're done, and they could be done a lot faster than the court is requiring (see comments above re the Bush v Gore timeline for examples).

Franken suggested he could file a response in 5 days, the MN Supreme Court extended that to 11 (why?), and on top of that, they schedule the oral arguments more than 2 weeks (again, why?) after all the briefs are submitted.

I understand the trial court had to give Coleman lots of leeway in order to minimize the number of issues for appeal, and I think they did a great job and exhibited more patience than most judges I've seen or heard of, but here, given that time really is of the essence, the MN Supreme Court blew it.

Will this travesty be the process of choice for future elections? If Coleman and his Party get to jerk the nation off for more than six months WITH IMPUNITY it has to spawn a trend.