Three Courts Slow to Rule on Ralph Nader Lawsuits Stemming from 2004 Presidential Election

The 2004 campaign season was almost eight years ago, and yet three courts are still pondering how to rule on various Ralph Nader lawsuits stemming from the 2004 election. As readers know, the Democratic National Committee and its allies spent millions of dollars, actively trying to block Ralph Nader from the ballot in as many states as possible.

The Democratic National Committee never reported these expenses to the Federal Election Commission. Nader sued the FEC in U.S. District Court in Washington for failing to investigate this reporting lapse. The District Court ruled in November 2011 that the FEC’s failure to follow its own rules in this matter was “harmless error”, and dismissed Nader’s lawsuit. Nader asked for a rehearing on December 9, 2011, and it is still pending. It is unusual for rehearing requests to remain pending for that length of time. Usually they are denied in less than a month, especially when the decision is before only a single judge.

Nader sued the Democratic National Committee, and the Maine Democratic Party, over its behavior in 2004. Several Nader lawsuits of this type were dismissed on the grounds that he had filed the lawsuits too late, but the Maine case does not have this problem, because Maine has a six year statute of limitations. The lower state court in Maine refused to permit a trial in the case, which is called Nader v The Maine Democratic Party. On September 14, 2011, Nader argued in the Maine Supreme Court that the lower court should have permitted a trial. It is now been almost six months and the Maine Supreme Court has not issued a decision.

The people who challenged Nader’s 2004 Pennsylvania petition have been trying for years to obtain money from one of Nader’s bank accounts in the District of Columbia. The Pennsylvania state courts had ruled that the challengers were entitled to over $80,000 from Nader, because the Pennsylvania courts had ruled Nader’s 2004 petition didn’t have enough valid signatures. One of Nader’s banks still hasn’t released the money to the challengers. On April 21,2010, the D.C. Court of Appeals heard oral arguments on whether the money should be released, and there is still no decision in that case, even though it has been almost two years since the oral argument. That case is Serody v Nader.


Comments

Three Courts Slow to Rule on Ralph Nader Lawsuits Stemming from 2004 Presidential Election — No Comments

  1. Hang in there Ralph. We’re waiting and watching for justice along with you. SM

  2. Mr. N. is akin to James Otis before 1776 and John Brown before 1861.

    Get ready to take on some EVIL monarch/oligarchy folks.

  3. Pingback: Three Courts Slow to Rule on Ralph Nader Lawsuits Stemming from 2004 Presidential Election | ThirdPartyPolitics.us

  4. Without Nader’s presidential campaign in 2000, Bush would never have been elected president. We would’ve had no GW messing with the country. All Nader’s ever done for this nation was shoot himself in the foot and make us suffer the consequences.

  5. #4, the unspoken assumption behind what you have said is that the voters who voted for Nader are mindless automatons who had no free will.

    When people voted for Nader in 2000, they understood what they were doing. They knew their vote was not going to Gore. They did what they wanted to do. That is what is called a free election.

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