Texas Supreme Court dismisses Republican's lawsuit

[sonias]

We win round 1 in the lawsuits fight. Yeah!!

http://www.statesman.com/legislature/content/coxnet/texas/legislature/0803/0811replawsuit.html
The Texas Supreme Court has turned down a request by Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst that the court order 11 Democratic Senators to return to Texas from New Mexico.

Without comment or explanation, the state's highest civil court denied a request for a writ of mandamus, essentially an emergency order from the court that would have declared that the absent senators are violating the state constitution and can be required to return to the Capitol.

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Reload and fire again Dems! :dem:

Sonia

[ixion]

1. woohoo!!

Go Texas 11... stand up to those thugs! :bounce:

[AnnabelLee]

2. Way cool!

:D

[FreeperSlayer]

3. Hot damn!

Dems with spines.
Joe Lieberman, you are a disgrace. Please resign.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

4. YES! YES! YES!!!!!!!!!!

THANK YOU TEXAS SUPREME COURT!!!


:dem: :kick: out Tom Delay!

[ButterflyBlood]

5. now this is a suprise

to my knowledge one of the judges on this court is Priscilla Owen and the other two are Perry apointees.

But good news.

[in_cog_ni_to]

6. Fantastic news!

I love it! It's nice to see some gutsy dems. The repukes must be fuming. :bounce:

Stick THAT, Delay! :bounce:

[Pastiche423]

7. Yee Haw!

Go Lone Star Dems!

:bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce:

[jiacinto]

8. That surprises me

I though they would have ruled against the Dems.

[seemslikeadream]

9. Separation of powers

what a novel idea! In Texas no less.

[sonias]

10. We are all shocked, but happy

I'm more than surprised too but I'll take it as a win anyway. I think on the letter of the law they had no choice but that's never stopped conservative judges from sticking their personal opinions in there anyway. Here is a link to the court judges
http://www.supreme.courts.state.tx.us/justices.htm
Yes you do have a couple of right wing wackos on the court like Priscilla R. Owen and Steven W. Smith. The court is repuke controlled absolutely. All are Republicans.

Here's a link to a story in the Houston Chronicle on the court and this case from Friday.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2038962
High court on the spot in redistricting battle
(snip)
University of Houston constitutional law professor David Crump said he believes the court will try hard to avoid the appearance of partiality to the Republicans. "The members of the Supreme Court will be bending over backward to avoid any implication that party affiliation has anything to do with it," Crump said.
"Every one of them values the court as an institution. They would be sensitive to the harm that could be done to the Texas Supreme Court, which has not always had a good reputation, but has earned a reputation as a very thoughtful court now."
(/snip)
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Sonia

[mvd]

11. Great news!

These Democrats certainly have the right idea - we are in a fight for our country's soul! I've been saying that we have to fight fire with fire at state and national levels, and even local.

[efhmc]

12. I have been busy all day so did not know what had happen. Finally,

reason wins. My heat stroke was not in vain.

[UTUSN]

13. Kick for Yippee---------But This Is Strange

I can't conceive that this court chock full of wingnuts would take a principled stand, despite the link in post #10:

******QUOTE*****
.... The last time the state Supreme Court was asked to involve itself directly in legislative affairs was December 2000, when the Texas Senate was preparing to elect a lieutenant governor to fill the vacancy left when Perry became governor after Bush was elected president.

The Senate wanted to hold a secret vote, but news organizations sued to force a public vote, claiming a secret ballot would violate both law and the state Constitution.

In that instance, the Supreme Court issued a narrow opinion that said the lieutenant governor is a Senate officer and the Constitution specifically allows the Senate to elect its officers by secret ballot. The high court avoided questions of whether the Senate was violating the open meetings provisions of the state Government Code. ....

"Every one of them values the court as an institution. They would be sensitive to the harm that could be done to the Texas Supreme Court, which has not always had a good reputation, but has earned a reputation as a very thoughtful court now." ....
*****UNQUOTE****

[moondust]

14. Surely Tom "Da Gubmit" DeLay can overturn this!?

I mean, this ain't Puke-like at all.