BREAKING NEWS NRA decides to file
request for an emergency stay in the United States Supreme Court of the BCRA
court's issue advocacy rulings. This will be the first opportunity for the
Supreme Court to act in this case (see the post two below this one on timing
unrelated to requests for immediate stays). I believe this request will be
sent to the Chief Justice, who likely will refer it to the Court. One interesting
question will be whether the other parties, such as the FEC, will file their
own stay requests. Like the NRA, the FEC thought an immediate stay so important
that it requested an emergency stay of the lower court ruling to take effect
while it considers its ruling on the stay motion itself.
More on Supreme Court timing I wrote
some about Supreme Court timing of the BCRA appeal on Friday (access the
post here).
I thought some more about this over the weekend. If my calculations are correct,
today is the last day for parties in the BCRA lawsuit to file their jurisdictional
statements (such statements are due 10 days after judgment in before the three-judge
court). Then parties have another 20 days to file responses, such as motions
to affirm, dismiss, etc. At that point, the Court would normally note probable
jurisdiction and set the case for briefing and argument.
The Court is next meeting in a publicly scheduled conference, this Friday
May 15. Will they perhaps set a schedule at that conference, before the 20
day responses come in? Given that the case is inevitably going to be heard
before the Court, it seems like a waste to wait the additional 20 days for
these motions.
By the way, at that same May 15 conference, the Court is scheduled to decide
on the cert petition filed by Ken Starr (who is also representing Mitch McConnell
in the BCRA litigation) in Board of Education of Township of Branchburg
NJ v. Board of Education of Borough of Summerville, NJ (No. 02-1302, cert.
petition filed 3/4/03). This case involves the right to one person, one vote
rules for non-residents of school districts whose children attend the district's
schools. For my earlier posts on this case, see here
and here.
This morning's BCRA news and commentary U.S.
News offers this
profile of Senator Mitch McConnell. Stuart Taylor offers this column on BCRA in
the National Journal. This Washington Times article
on the end of the Supreme Court's term mentions the complications wrought
by a potential BCRA decision this term.
Here is a letter to the editor in the Financial Times.
Rick Hasen
Professor of Law and William M. Rains Fellow
Loyola Law School
919 South Albany Street
Los Angeles, CA 90015-1211
(213)736-1466 - voice
(213)380-3769 - fax
rick.hasen@lls.edu
http://www.lls.edu/academics/faculty/hasen.html
http://electionlaw.blogspot.com