Harris wins lawsuit

Unsurprisingly, Kathleen Harris has defeated a legal challenge to her candidacy.

Based upon the undisputed facts of this case and applying well-established legal precedent, this court finds that Harris did not comply with the mandatory resignation requires of (the law). However, her non-compliance was statutorily forgiven. ... She has qualified for the primary election and shall not be removed as a candidate for the election to the 13th congressional seat.

Judges are generally loathe to intrude upon political disputes, lest they be seen as intefering with the will of the people. I know, I know, there's the Supreme Court and the Gore v. Bush battle, but there's a reason that Gore v. Bush was so shocking and outrageous a decision -- judges got needlessly involved in a political dispute. The judge in the Harris case ruled correctly.

Of course, Democrats are now making noise about picking up the legal fight against Harris. It has been argued by some that there's no parallel between Florida and the challenge against Mitt Romney in Massachusetts (which backfired disastrously on the Democrats). I am persuaded by the argument. The Democrats have zero chance to defeat Harris in the general election, so why not cause a little mischief? Harris has only enforced Florida election rules when they suited her, and brazenly ignored them when they did not. Why not try to hold her to her own standards?

Posted September 16, 2002 07:49 AM | Comments (1)