Franken wins by +312 votes.
The MN Supreme Court heard oral arguments yesterday morning and has now had the case with all its glory almost 24 hours. I think the earliest we might get a ruling is 48 hours but I doubt it (would LOVE to be surprised!)
A Review of how it went yesterday yust past the Orange fold below...
Opening Round: Coleman's Appeal
The room was familiar and yet not, with lawyers' tables facing each other instead of the Bench, tons of evidence 3-ring binders and easels missing. 5 judges rather than 3. No witnesses.
A lot less clutter in the room...... except for all the equipment everyone brought for this final round: Whack-a-Mole mallet/gavels, light sabres, light quarterstaffs (those 2 ended jobbers the Supreme Court justices get issued when they are seated to the high bench), football and hockey equipment, biathalon rifles, and several "violin cases" with cute Valentine's hearts stuck on them here and there.
Jay Weiner of the MN Post was all over the bugger from the get-go here:http://www.minnpost.com/...
Joe Friedberg for Coleman (who was there for the execution oral argument) stepped up to the podium battling a bout of laryngitis from the past few days. Having gaveled Court to order it took Justice Alan Page about 2 minutes to unleash on Friedberg. Joe was coming with the same tired argument about absentee ballots being "substantially compliant" with the law rather than "strictly compliant." Page swung his Light Quarterstaff (LQS) three minutes in: "What exactly do you mean by substantiality?" While Joe parried decently he kept getting forced back by the next question and the next. About 9 minutes in his light sabre sagged enough that he said flat out: "There was no election fraud. There was no voter fraud."
Now take THAT to the bank, progressives! THE man, the Coleman legal champion charged with making the best possible case for the greatest set of teeth the US Senate has seen since a State of the Union Address from Jimmy Carter, as an officer of the Court THIS man has said, "There was no fraud" in the MN senate election. And you know what that means: All of the Hannitys, OReillys, Slowbaughs, Glen BeckBack Mountains, Pawlentys, and various mouth-breathing amphibian-brained walleye suckers in MN who have been going around slobbering "fraud... abuse.... ballots in trunks... fake ballots.... manufactured ballots from ACORN on George Soros watermarked stationery" all of them and all the stuff they keep say can just. Shut. UP.
Because Joe Freidberg says so, thats who and thats why. This guy, who could REALLY use a little voter fraud, who could use a ballot or 2 from a car trunk, who could leverage a phony ballot into something big, says he can't..... because these things DO NOT EXIST. So tell them just. shut. up.
Back to our regularly scheduled whatever this is:
Justice Christopher Dietzen has been under the gun from some progressives since he made contributions to Republicans including Coleman. (Norm should give a refund.) Dietzen came out from under that gun, cracked open one of those "violin cases" marked Valentine's Day, Chicago and opened up like Jean-Luc Picard in "First Contact" ("With the safety protocols off, even a holographic bullet can kill.")
"I've never seen an offer of proof like this," said Dietzen, complaining that the offers didn't actually identify specific potential witnesses or what their presumed evidence would have been been -- only continued arguments that "a substantial number" of ballots exist. Dietzen added that "the rules of evidence, the rules of civil procedure apply. Now why is this offer of proof not inadequate, in that we don't have admissible evidence that can show whether you've met your burden?"
(Kleefeld, TPM)
The guy thought to be maybe most on your side is asking about how inadequate your offer of proof is? Sounds like Norm's case can't be cured of its inadequacy by 50 kilos of Viagra.
Norway was heard from in the form of Justice Gildea. Friedberg was arguing the ECC prevented Coleman from entering evidence. Justice Lori eschewed (!) her LightQuarterStaff and surprised everyone by snapping on the chin strap of her helmet, picking up her stick and popping over the bench/boards. She met Friedberg on a long glide at center ice with a hip check that will be replayed on "Hockey Night in Canada" for years.
Once, Justice Lori Skjerven Gildea sharply rebuked Friedberg when he tried to explain that the election contest panel had prevented Coleman from presenting certain evidence during the trial
Gildea: "Where did the contest court so rule?"
Friedberg: "It ruled right from the beginning, your honor, and we answered it by submitting in an offer of proof ..."
Gildea: "Pardon me for interrupting, but when I say where, I mean where. Page citation in the record."
Weiner, MNPost
The cameras didn't catch it but after that as Gildea circled back to the Bench past the Franken table, Marc Elias was seen holding down David Lillehaug's hands so "Lills" wouldn't stand up and give "Skjerves" a fist bump congrats for the hit.
While the kids were good, leave it to one of the vets to show how to scold a lawyer in style.
Friedberg said they've gathered plenty of evidence from the two-dozen counties they did call -- that counties used a varying standard, and that substantial compliance should be enough to let these ballots in, as opposed to a strict compliance standard used by the trial court. "We've made our case," he said forcefully. "You can't make it any better than that!"
Justice Anderson shot back. "I still have problems with your saying we're a substantial compliance state," Anderson said. "And as loud as you speak on this issue there's language I don't think you can overcome."
Kleefeld again.
"And as loud as you speak......"!? WHOA! Anderson trotted back to the huddle and asked Page, "Is that how you play defensive line?" Page nodded. "Now you're gettin' it."
Round II: Team Franken
Marc Elias was almost caught off guard by his first question. Justice Page suddenly channeled Yoda for a meta-query of the Force: "Decide the US Senate will this, so we all why here?"
(To be fair, it was heard by some in the courtroom as:
Page: "If the U.S. Senate will ultimately decide this, why are we all here?"
Elias agreed but that since Coleman had appealed Franken was going to do his best to respect the judiciary process. Indeed Elias had a much friendlier reception from the Court. A few minutes in Justice Gildea asked:
[Comment From Shlif]
Talk about a friendly question. "Forget the legal niceties. He didn't prove his case, did he?" 9:34
(Uptake)
Now how could Marc disagree with the premise of THAT question?
Gildea then asked whether she was properly summarizing Elias' argument: "It was his [Coleman's] burden to prove it. He didn't prove it, he can't stand up here now and speculate." Elias agreed that this is indeed his argument.
Once again Elias was MOST agreeable.
Justice Anderson showed he could do meta too by walking around the Universe, engage in chaos theory and even bring in Intelligent Design, while Elias had to rein in the good Justice by reminding him Coleman has to show the votes AS EVIDENCE and he ain't got the votes.
Anderson: "We're talking here about the universe of Minnesota absentee ballots ... You say there is some intelligent design mandated by statute. There is not chaos. It is order ... There may be some and you can see some aberrant star systems or galaxies ... What Mr. Coleman is focusing on is, 'Look at this aberrant galaxy ... This is proof that the universe is chaos.' The fact is they've shown me that. They've shown there's some chaos in this universe ... Tell me why [it matters that we] can't see the whole universe, but they've shown us enough?"
Because Elias said, Coleman can't speculate, can't suggest there has been an "amalgam" of problems. The errors statewide have been "garden variety," not widespread or fraudulent. Coleman, he said, has to show them the votes, and there aren't enough out there to overcome Franken's lead, even though Coleman is seeking as many as 4,400 votes to be counted.
Round III: Coleman's Rebuttal
Having been refreshed by Elias' reloading of their photon torpedoes, the Court swung back with all phasers firing on Friedberg's mercifully final 10 minutes.
Justice Meyer was bothered by a statement in Coleman's brief that said the "overwhelming majority" of Minnesota's counties used "substantial compliance" (rather than "strict compliance") standards in assessing absentee ballot envelopes. Where's the evidence? she asked.
How many did you contact (let alone actually put on the stand to testify)? she asked. 26 out of 87. Yeah right. Odd version of "majority."
The whole rebuttal was like that, glimpsed in this sequence from the Uptake's comment string:
9:58 [Comment From Shlif]
Judge [Anderson to Friedberg] quoting Franken's lawyer as part of his question. Wow again!
9:59 [Comment From lostboyjim]
WOW: Friedberg just said, "We don't have to prove it, just likely prove it MIGHT happen"?????? Really???
10:01 [Comment From Shlif]
"I suspect the other side would say..." "Their argument would be.." I love this. The judges are clearly supporting Franken here.
10:02 [Comment From LEK]
BS! They DO have to show some proof, not show that it's possible there might be proof!
Summary: Coleman is toast.
So writes Eric Black at MN Post:
http://www.minnpost.com/...
So writes Jay Weiner at MN Post:
http://www.minnpost.com/...
So writes the skinny Orange Kid who's best friends with George Soros:http://www.dailykos.com/...
So write Ned Foley of Ohio State Law School and Rick Hasen of LA Loyola Law school:
http://www.minnpost.com/...
Only the maybe 30 people who showed up for the Tea Party rally on the Capitol Lawn didn't think so. (They were busy surrounding Grace Kelly from MN Progressive project).
http://www.mnprogressiveproject.com/...
How soon? Not soon enough of course but I think the Court will rule by Clem Yeobright's prediction of June 33rd. One expert said on the Uptake radio show last night the Court has shown some trend to hand down a decision on Tuesdays, having informed the principals in a case the prior Friday... but we'll see.
And how soon can YOU order the coffee table book (replaces the coffee table) of these diaries? Sooner than the MN Supreme Court can rule by going to this web address and plunking down your coin virtually or by surface post. Autographs and free shipping if you beat the deadlines:http://www.wordalchemy.net/...
OK, now you have Tuesday reading material. I've got the VERY late shift today (start at noon, go to 10) so I'll blog with you for a while in comments. Thats about the latest from yust southeast of Lake Wobegon.
Shalom.