Posted 4:44 PM by Robert

Davis Descending XVIII: No Help For Davis From The Courts

Another court denial of a petition by Davis supporters to delay the recall vote count - this time on the basis of a grotesque theory that if the signature collector violated California law by being from out-of-state, then the signature is invalid. Sure. It's hard to find a theory more inconsistent with the "more voter choice" principle.

This decision - which will be affirmed by the California Supreme Court if that court ever decides the issue - should be more evidence that state courts are not construing election law as if they were the Internal Revenue Code. Technical arguments based on nice points of language, regulatory decisions, legislative history, histories of changes in various provisions and so on are just not that important.

Such things keep the academics occupied and give them grist for post-hoc papers arguing why the courts got everything wrong. But those considerations don't mean much in predicting the actual future.