For Immediate Release ================= October 8, 2014 Green Candidate for Attorney General Continues Fight for Constitutional Rights in Benton Harbor Recall Case ======================================= La Pietra Renews Invitation to Michigan Supreme Court to Let Voters Be Counted as Signing Political Petitions Stands Alone Against Incumbent, Major Law Firms to Defend Core First Amendment Speech Rights John Anthony La Pietra, Green Party of Michigan candidate for Attorney General, today filed a motion asking the state Supreme Court to reconsider its earlier no-decision order and recognize the Constitutional rights of Michigan voters to sign political petitions and be counted. La Pietras motion to reconsider comes in the case of a mayoral recall petition in Benton Harbor -- a case he has carried to the Supreme Court, charging no fee and standing alone against the incumbent Attorney Generals office as well as two major law firms. The core issue in the case is whether a registered voter who happened to sign a petition validly twice is entitled to be counted once. If so, the Benton Harbor petition had enough valid signatures to put the recall on the ballot. John won at the Berrien County Trial Court by pointing out that the practice applied by County Clerk Sharon Tyler -- of invalidating all signatures of such duplicate signers, regardless of whether they knowingly tried to get counted twice -- totally denied signers their core rights to political speech. He also refuted the clerks legal arguments, showing that * there is no state law requiring the invalidate-all counting practice; * a 1940 state court case doesnt support the practice as the clerk had argued it did; and * a 1993 Federal case allowing (though not requiring) the practice under the weakest possible Constitutional scrutiny has been superseded by the same court and by several US Supreme Court decisions since then. In an opinion and order issued August 12, Judge John Dewane agreed with John that the invalidate-all practice was an undue burden on the First Amendment rights of petition signers and circulators, and put the recall back on the ballot for this Novembers election. The clerk appealed, armed with $20,000 in funding from the County Board and support from two major law firms -- one working for the Michigan Association of County Clerks -- and the Attorney Generals office, representing the Secretary of State and the Bureau of Elections. After hearing from all those parties, as well as reading Johns brief and one from the ACLU Fund of Michigan, a three-judge Court of Appeals panel issued a literally unexplained and unjustified order September 4 reversing Judge Dewanes balanced and reasoned opinion. John, working alone, assembled an appeal to the state Supreme Court and filed it the next day. But after almost two weeks of emergency consideration, the Court released a one-page order September 17 saying they wouldnt decide the matter. In the standard formal language, the order says a majority of the Justices was not persuaded that the question presented should be reviewed by this Court. Court rules allowed La Pietra 21 days to move for reconsideration, but a recent change requires him to convince the Justices that reconsideration is necessary to reverse a palpable error. His motion starts by pointing out that the Michigan Supreme Court has held since 1913 that even a law enacted by the Legislature to preserve the purity of elections may not destroy elective rights. The invalidate-all practice is not required by any law, so it may not do something a law cant. But the practice does destroy voters rights to sign petitions and be counted -- and needlessly, too, since a practice of counting one valid signature for any qualified voter and striking any others does as much to prevent fraud. The motion also reminds the Justices that the Court Clerks Elections Administrator Carolyn Toliver and Sheriffs Detective David Zizkovsky admitted at the Trial Court hearing August 7 to criminal mishandling of the original petition sheets. That violates Michigan court precedent saying purity of elections requires fairness and evenhandedness in election laws. And the invalidate-all practice is even more weakened without fairness, notes La Pietra, since it does not have a statute or even a promulgated rule to give it a shield of due process. The misbehavior of the Court Clerks office should strip the practice of any presumption of Constitutionality, he concludes. La Pietra concedes that it is too late now to put the Benton Harbor recall on next months ballot. But the case is not moot; the Supreme Court can order the recall it onto the ballot next May, for city voters to decide on it then. There is still time for our states highest court to reconsider this case in light of the highest law of the land, and decide it *For the People*. Johns motion for reconsideration can be seen here: jalp5dai.wordpress/?attachment_id=58 John also posted the Michigan Supreme Courts previous one-page order at jalp5dai.wordpress/?attachment_id=50 The earlier Court of Appeals non-decision is here: jalp5dai.wordpress/?attachment_id=49 And the six pages of Judge Dewanes original decision are at jalp5dai.wordpress/?attachment_id=48 These links and more, plus comments from John, are on his campaign Facebook page: https://facebook/jalp4thePeople You can also see developments on the case -- about a day behind time -- at the Courts “Case Search” page: courts.mi.gov/opinions_orders/case_search/pages/default.aspx?SearchType=1&CaseNumber=150019&CourtType_CaseNumber=1 The Supreme Courts file number for the case is 150019. For more information about Johns campaign -- including his answers to every candidate survey hes received, as well as some Opinions and other proposals to make sure the job of Attorney General gets done the most effective way *For the People* -- contact him via phone, e-mail, or USPS mail, or visit his campaign Facebook page: John Anthony La Pietra -- Attorney General For the People 386 Boyer Court Marshall, MI 49068 phone: (269) 781-9478 e-mail: [email protected] Facebook: jalp4thePeople For more information on the Green Party of Michigan, its Ten Key Values, its platform, and its other candidates, contact: Green Party of Michigan PO Box 504 Warren, MI 48090-0504 313-815-2025 MIGreenParty.org/ Facebook: migreens Twitter: @migreenparty # # # prepared using donated labor by: JALP -- Attorney General For the People 386 Boyer Ct; Marshall, MI 49068 phone: (269) 781-9478 e-mail: [email protected] Facebook: jalp4thePeople
Posted on: Mon, 13 Oct 2014 22:59:03 +0000
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