Judge Grants Plaintiffs' Motion for Injunction, on the road to democracy
Mitchel Cohen, 1-25-08
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Here's some info on what happened today in court, after the parties had a "settlement negotiation" all morning that mostly was people screaming their brains out at each other.
WBAI's lawyers had earlier filed for a summary dismissal of our case. The Judge consolidated those papers on our lawyer's request (which were in a separate building) with what was being heard today, to bring it all under his aegis. He did NOT grant their motion to dismiss our case, but took it under advisement, along with out papers countering that motion to dismiss. He'll decide on this and numerous other questions over the next month or so.
The victory for the Plaintiffs is, he GRANTED the preliminary injunction we were seeking (the defendants finally concensed to it), which means that Judge Braun has ordered Pacifica to send ballots to ALL qualified voters who hadn't received them. If they do not do this, we will file to throw them in jail for contempt.
The injunction reads:
THIS PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION SOUGHT BY THE PLAINTIFFS IS GRANTED, to the extent of the stipulation by defendants of this date:The defendants shall not count the ballots of the WBAI Delegate election until all qualified voters who have not received ballots are given ballots and are provided with a reasonable opportunity to cast them;
Accordingly, the defendants shall establish as the final date for submission of ballots in the WBAI election as February 23, 2008.
This is a terrific, if partial, victory for the Plaintiffs and democracy at Pacifica. But it's not over.
The Judge also ruled against our emergency motion for certain immediate discovery (the mailing list). This will come up again later, in the non-emergency arguments over the case.
Our papers are quite extensive ... and growing. Everything else is being held over so that the judge has time to read the papers, as well as have an operation on his shoulder (hurt in a bicycle accident).
He also denied our emergency appeal for remedy for this weekend (without affirming the other side) -- these will all come up again at the PNB meeting this weekend, and over the next month or 6 weeks in a NON-emergency capacity, as he reads our papers. This means that if he agrees with us and rules in our favor -- and that's a big "IF" -- everything the LSB and PNB will have done in the interim may be declared null and void.
It is not clear how to interpret aspects of this decision. Does this mean that the elections will be starting up again? Does it mean that ballots from one sealed box (November 19) will be commingled with ballots picked up on December 7? Plaintiffs interpret this Injunction to mean that ONLY those who had not received ballots will be provided an opportunity to vote, but that the election itself closed on November 15, except for those replacement ballots. But we suspect that the JUC will be continuing their campaign of lies and slander and will tell people that "everyone has another chance to vote, if you missed the first time, and to hell with the bylaws." We'll see.
Lots of things came up in conference. More on that insanity another time -- Casey Peters, Dan Siegel, all the lawyers, Michael and Evelyn Warren, plaintiffs Mitchel Cohen, Linda Zises, Frank Lefever, and Bob Goldberg were all in the room, along with our lawyer, Tom Hillgardner. There was a totally different and VERY loud settlement conference going on at the same time in the same small room. The decibel levels alone were deafening, and exhausting.
NOTE:
(1) The Judge did not order that people need to make a new request for replacement ballots if they submitted such a request before November 15. So you don't have to submit a new request for a replacement ballot if you'd already submitted one. But if you did submit an old one, please TELL MITCHEL COHEN AND FRANK LEFEVER. mitchelcohen(at)mindspring.com and Frank LeFever at fflefever(at)yahoo.com. We need to compile this list to make sure that all of those ballots are sent and votes are counted.
(2) The Justice and Unity faction stands exposed for lying to everyone about what the independents and Plaintiffs are demanding in this case. PLEASE TAKE NOTE: After all their bluster, opposition, name-calling, whatever, WBAI's lawyers agreed to the terms in our petition as originally submitted and the Judge GRANTED our request for a preliminary injunction. So the JUC's slanderous claim that they posted and widely circulated, with the help of Sara Flounders and the International Action Center, stand utterly and completely rebuked. They wrote that we were "demanding that only their supporters who didn't get ballots have the right to cast late ballots." What malicious slander. This is a conscious twisting of the truth to try to gain votes for themselves by riling people up over lies, just like Karl Rove does. THEY NOW STAND REFUTED.
(3) Everyone should cast whatever ballots you have. We are not sure whether the Judge will allow these to be counted or not. If you did not get a ballot, request a replacement ballot now and mail it in.
(4) For those who did NOT submit a request for a replacement ballot previously, do so immediately. Write directly to Casey Peters at pacifica(at)mail2casey.com and make that request, and Bcc it to me at mitchelcohen(at)mindspring.com and Frank LeFever at fflefever(at)yahoo.com.