BREAKING NEWS: National Right to Life Committee
and Club for Growth file Opposition to NRA Emergency Stay Request in Supreme
Court I have just received a copy of the petition, which proposes four
alternative courses of relief in the Supreme Court:
This Court could respond to the NRA’s present application in several ways.
First, the Court could deny the application. That would protect the JMC Parties
from being harmed by the primary definition of “electioneering communication.”
Second, the Court could withhold a decision on the application until the district
court rules on all stay and injunction pending appeal motions, which may
obviate the need for this Court to rule, although the JMC Parties are sympathetic
to the NRA’s need for a prompt resolution of its harm. Third, the Court could
grant the NRA’s motion for the limited time until the district court responds
to the pending stay and injunction pending appeal motions, which would give
the NRA protection now and not ultimately harm the JMC Plaintiffs interests.
Fourth, the Court could issue the requested stay pending appeal, but limit
its effect to the NRA for now, which would
provide the NRA its relief and not impose the impending harm of the primary
definition of “electioneering communication” on
others. The JMC Parties urge the Court to choose one of these options over
granting the NRA’s stay application.
I also just posted some comments on my blog as to why maybe it would be best for the lower court to deny all the stay requests without comment (at least if the alternative will take lots of time. See:
http://electionlaw.blogspot.com/2003_05_01_electionlaw_archive.html#200280626
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