OntheWilderSide

From Ballot Access News, via Independent Political Report…

Nader Asks D.C. Court Not to Permit 2004 Pennsylvania Challengers to Take Money out of his Bank Account / April 21st, 2010

On April 21, Ralph Nader’s attorney Oliver Hall argued in the D.C. Court of Appeals that the Pennsylvania court order, awarding $81,000 to the people who challenged Nader’s ballot access petition in 2004, was fundamentally unjust. See this story from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: here.

The people who challenged Nader’s petition in 2004 used state government employees, on government time, as well as state government databanks and computers. Today is the first time that any court has been willing to hold oral arguments on Nader’s claim that the Pennsylvania challenge system, as it worked in 2004, is illegitimate.

The case is in court in Washington, D.C., because that is where Nader’s bank account is. Generally it is very tough for any attorney to persuade state courts in one state not to honor a court order from another state. Of course D.C. is not a state, but it has courts that are the functional equivalent of state courts. The D.C. Appeals Court is not the same as the U.S. Court of Appeals for D.C. Thanks to Ed Bortz for the link.

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Ralph Nader has previously run for President of the United States, with the Green Party, and more recently (and in 2004) as an independent candidate.

Filed under: Ballot issues, Green Party, News, politics, progressive politics, Ralph Nader, US Politics Tagged: | ballot access, DC Court of Appeals, Green Party, Nader, Pennsy;vania courts, pennsylvania, petitions