Coleman appeals to state Supreme Court
Posted: Monday, April 20, 2009 6:21 PM by Mark Murray
Filed Under:
Congress, States, Democrats, Republicans
From NBC's Harry Enten and Mark Murray
In the latest move in the never-ending Minnesota Senate race, Norm Coleman's legal team today announced it would be filing a notice of appeal with the Minnesota Supreme Court. Coleman lawyer Jim Langdon said it could take anywhere from "two weeks to two months" for the court to begin hearing oral arguments. Langdon and fellow Coleman attorney Ben Ginsberg wouldn't say whether they would take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court if the Minnesota court ruled against Coleman.
While their legal reasoning behind the appeal was similar to their arguments in front of the three-judge panel -- which ruled that Al Franken had won the most votes -- Coleman's attorneys said they hoped the state Supreme Court will look at constitutional issues regarding the recount. They believed the lower courts might have felt "constrained" by prior Minnesota Supreme Court recount rulings, and that the court can set aside these rulings aside and look at the recount's equal-protection and due-process violations.
“Today, 4,400 Minnesotans have not had their voices heard or their votes counted," Coleman said in a statement released by his campaign. "The Minnesotan Supreme Court is the right place for these issues to be heard, reviewed, and decided."
In a conference call responding to Coleman's appeal, Franken attorney Marc Elias said that Coleman's arguments are the "same old, same old" that the three-judge panel and Minnesota Canvassing Board rejected earlier. "Sometimes you come up on the short end of a close and bitter election," he said. "But at some point, you have to accept the reality for what it is" -- that Franken won the election.
Elias added that Franken's legal team would file a motion with the state Supreme Court to expedite the proceedings.
Sen. Bob Menendez, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, released this statement: "It is sad, but not surprising, that Norm Coleman would continue to drag this process out any longer. While it is certainly within his right to appeal, given all of the challenges facing this country right now, we’d hope that he would put the interest of Minnesotans above his own and allow all of us to move on."
