Federal Judiciary

UPDATE: Souter refuses to order ballot access

By Akin Gump Supreme Court Practice Group

UPDATE 5:10 p.m.    Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter, in a brief order Wednesday afternoon, turned down a request that would have given an independent candidate in Maine for the U.S. Senate a place on the Nov. 4 ballot for that office.  Souter acted without referring the stay application to his colleagues.  There was no written opinion, just a simple denial order.  The Justice’s action appears to assure the state’s two major party candidates, incumbent Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican, and her Democratic challenger, Rep. Tom Allen, that they will not have to worry about an independent drawing votes away from them.  Sen. Collins is considered by political analysts to be one of the vulnerable GOP Senators seeking reelection.  Hoffman’s counsel could still go ahead with plans to file a full appeal on the ballot access issue, but Souter’s action probably reduces significantly the chances that such an appeal would succeed, or that a final ruling could come in time. Maine officials say the ballot must be finalized by Aug. 29.

An earlier post on this dispute follows:

Seeking to give the U.S. Supreme Court more time to ponder whether to intervene in an election dispute in Maine, that state’s highest court on Wednesday delayed for a week its ruling that would bar an independent U.S. Senate candidate from the ballot.  By a vote of 3-2, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court said it would not put its July 28 ruling into effect until next Wednesday.  It added that it would not approve any further delay, unless the Supreme Court steps in.  The order, and the dissent, can be found here.

The non-party candidate, Herbert J. Hoffman of Ogunquit, a retired psychologist, is seeking to be on the ballot for the Senate seat now held by Republican Susan Collins. Also vying for the seat is the Democratic nominee, Rep. Tom Allen.  Hoffman was cleared for the ballot by the Maine secretary of state, but a protest by the state Democratic chairman led to a state Supreme Court ruling overturning the secretary.

Hoffman has asked Justice David H. Souter to stay the Maine court’s ruling, until the Supreme Court can act on a planned appeal; the appeal, in a petition for certiorari, has not yet been filed, but the Maine court noted Wednesday that Hoffman’s counsel had said they planned to file an expedited petition. At this point, Justice Souter is considering only the stay application (08A138).

In granting a one-week delay in putting its ruling into effect, the state Supreme Judicial Court majority said it doubted that Hoffman could win in his appeal to the Supreme Court.   But, it said, it opted to “partially accommodate Hoffman’s request for a stay in order to allow him to determine whether the Supreme Court will intervene to stay our mandate.”

By putting off its ruling a week, the state court majority said, it would allow the secretary of state two full business days to act before the deadline for creating a final ballot.

Full post as published by SCOTUSBLOG on August 20, 2008 (boomark / email).