Supreme Court Rules Against Foley
After an hour of argument, the Connecticut Supreme Court unanimously rejected Tom Foley’s action to block Michael Fedele from receiving public funds for his gubernatorial campaign. The court upheld last week’s Superior Court ruling against Foley.
The ruling was made from the bench. A written decision will follow.
8 comments
Isn’t it quiet in Foley land tonight!
It’s also quiet in your nearly empty head regarding Kevin Lembo’s non-existent formal declaration that he was running for Lieutenant Governor. You still looking for something that doesn’t exist?
The judges were wrong and can’t read the law 9-709(a). That’s the breaks. No problem, Foley will just beat him on August 10th. There have been numerous discussions on that here already so I won’t bother repeating them.
Meanwhile Ken, keep looking for Lembo’s imaginary LG announcement, okay big guy?
Ken, I wouldn’t consider myself part of Foley land, more part of “taxpayers who don’t like public funds used to pay for candidates they don’t support” land, but I’ll say something in response.
First, this was hardly the “clear message” that Chris Cooper claimed it to be. Unlike the Bysiewicz decision, this was not unanimous. It will be interesting to see what the panel breakdown was. Moreover, the Fedele campaign is only showing a mastery of spin, not the law, when it calls the lawsuit frivolous. Just because someone loses an appeal does not mean the lawsuit was frivolous. Horton Shield & Knox are hardly a bunch of ambulance chasers; they would not have taken the case if it did not have at least some merit.
Second, although the general public (at least the limited number of us who care about this crap) will interpret today’s action simply victory for Fedele, do not mistake the speed with which the court decided the case for vindication. A written opinion will follow, and there is no guarantee that the court will sign on to all of Judge Aurigemma’s reasoning. I wouldn’t hold my breath as far as a majority signing off on the sketch-ass double dipping scheme. The court very well may have decided that, because Fedele relied on the SEEC’s advisory opinion and proceeded accordingly, he is entitled to keep the funds as a matter of equity because he would have pursued other means of financing without the advisory opinion.
Finally, the speed with which this was decided should be very troubling to the public. Most appeals take months, if not years. This case will have vast consequences (the threshold for support may have been halved), yet it was briefed and argued in a matter of days, and decided less than an hour after oral argument. The lack of unanimity demonstrates that the decision was not as clear cut as, say, the Bysiewicz case, yet the court has boxed itself into a judgment without having the time to provide the reasoning. The fact that the justices affirmed the judgment so quickly should not be applauded by anybody.
The fact still remains that your boy Mike has accepted nearly a million dollars in undeserved, unconstitutional public financing. As Kevin said, simply because there is no procedural relief that can be afforded the Foley campaign does NOT mean that it is right to keep the money.
We will see what the Supreme Court says.
Ken, did you find Lembo’s public declaration yet?
I didn’t think so…….
Ed, get a life.
Kenny, you’ve just proven you’re an idiot, thank you. You made a false claim, I asked you to back it up and you can’t so the best you can do is resort to insults. You’re stupid and you’re a liar, plain and simple.
Well let’s hope the fourth time is the charm for Foley to finally give up on this. It’s about time that we actually get back to talking about the real issues. His opponents should just take advantage of the fact that he still claims to be a conservative despite wasting millions of dollars of taxpayer money on his campaign. That might actually get somewhere!
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