Minnesota Supreme Court

Lawyers of all shapes and sizes crowded a Minnesota Supreme Court hearing today in the squabble over who will be the state’s second U.S. Senator: Norm Coleman or Al Franken. Both sides made oral arguments, as the state’s sole Senator, Amy Klobuchar, had warned there was no “Susan Boyle” moment.

Nearly seven months after election day, Minnesota’s unresolved Senate race sees another milestone today — and a chance to move closer to filling the state’s second seat. The state Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Norm Coleman’s bid to overturn a trial court’s ruling that Al Franken won the U.S. Senate election by a [...]

Barack Obama’s White House would rather not fight or switch when it comes to making nominations to the U.S. Supreme Court. So it wouldn’t be surprising if Sonia Sotomayor’s clean slate on political campaign contributions weighed in her favor, against rivals who regularly cough up cash for candidates. It’s a hazard that Minnesota’s high-court justices [...]

Minnesotan Coleen Rowley has emerged in the last few days as a potential “off-the-grid” nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court. Rowley’s addition to unofficial SCOTUS “long lists” (as opposed to shortlists) comes as U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar downplays chatter that she might be tapped to replace retiring Justice David Souter.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty politely rebuffed Democratic National Committee chairman Tim Kaine’s plea to intervene in the U.S. Senate contest by pressuring Norm Coleman to concede. In a letter to the Virginia governor, Pawlenty argued that it’s too early to declare a winner in the contest.

Norm Coleman wants all voters who “substantially complied” with state rules governing absentee ballots to have their votes counted. In a brief filed with the Minnesota Supreme Court today, the former senator argues that the case should be sent back to the trial court under orders to consider 4,400 rejected absentee ballots for possible inclusion in the vote tally.

Al Franken won the U.S. Senate contest fair and square. That’s the gist of the Democrat’s 53-page brief filed Monday with the Minnesota Supreme Court. Franken wants the state’s highest court to affirm the ruling by a three-judge panel that he won the U.S. Senate contest by 312 votes and order that he be issued an election certificate immediately.

Oral arguments in Norm Coleman’s senate-election appeal are set for June 1, the Minnesota Supreme Court announced in an order (pdf) issued this morning — a schedule that adopts Coleman’s slower-paced proposal rather than Franken’s fast-track plan.  

As expected, the first order by the Minnesota Supreme Court in considering Norm Coleman’s election-contest appeal indicates that two justices are recusing themselves from the case. Chief Justice Eric Magnuson and Associate Justice G. Barry Anderson are again bowing out, apparently due to their service on the State Canvassing Board that oversaw the recount late [...]

If the Minnesota Supreme Court hears Norm Coleman’s appeal of Al Franken’s election victory, the justices would do well to fill seats on the bench that recusals leave empty with temporary help drawn from the ranks of retired justices and judges. That’s the opinion of Sandra Gardebring Ogren, a former associate justice, who says “a fuller court would increase public confidence in the decision.”