Benchslaps, Politics

Republican Party Brutally Benchslapped

"[T]his is not the first, second, third, or even tenth time [the GOP] had missed a deadline in this case...."

By  
on

If you’re one of those cynics who think politicians run amok believing that the rules don’t apply to them, then this story is… not going to change your worldview one bit. The Republican Party in Utah got its feathers ruffled and sued the state in federal court to block the law. Query how the Republicans — who dominate all branches of Utah’s government — let this bill become law if they’re so dead set against it, but that episode of Bizarro Schoolhouse Rock will have to wait for another time.

No, today’s agenda focuses on how thoroughly and consistently incompetent the Utah GOP is at following basic f**king instructions. They, in fact, blew a deadline they had 7 months to meet. Maybe they were using the same calendar that said the Iraqis would greet us as liberators and the war would end in a matter of weeks.

SB 54 became law last year, allowing candidates to earn a spot on the ballot by collecting signatures. The law served as a compromise between the existing caucus system and a popular ballot initiative’s proposed primary system. Apparently the Republican Party leadership (and the Constitution Party, but who the hell cares) really want to keep the caucus system because it gives party bosses disproportionate power… well, actually the strikethrough comment is all there is.

Last week, Chief Judge David Nuffer handed down a stinging benchslap of the party, denying their summary judgment motion out of hand based on some of the most bush league chicanery (not to be confused with “Bush” league chicanery, which actually succeeds) in law.

But first, let’s set the stage by looking at how many breaks the Utah GOP had in this case:

Dispositive motions were due on September 21, 2015. That deadline was set in February 2015, based on the need to resolve this case in a timely manner, hopefully before the start of the 2016 Utah Legislative Session. A shortened schedule for briefing and argument was set at that hearing with many other deadlines.

On September 21, 2015 at 11:59 p.m., after the other parties had timely filed their dispositive motions, the Utah Republican Party filed a motion to extend the dispositive motion deadline for one day. The court granted the motion, but warned that “failure to file the motion today [September 22] will result in any late-filed motion being stricken and entirely disregarded.” Nothing was filed on September 22, 2015.

Well, when was it filed?

Sponsored

On September 23, 2015 at 12:02 a.m., the Utah Republican Party filed a motion for summary judgment. It contained 38 pages and did not include exhibits. At 1:44 p.m. on September 23, without leave of court, and without any motion for leave, the Utah Republican Party filed a “corrected” motion for summary judgment. The “corrected” motion was a total of 288 pages including exhibits.

Ah, the surprise after-the-fact “corrected” version. Does anyone fall for that? Well, the judge didn’t because he derisively describes it throughout the order with the written form of air quotes (and it’s subtle, but that really is a thing distinct from standard quotation marks).

And you bleeding hearts out there may want to at least forgive the “12:02 a.m.” filing — despite the explicit warning — but you’d be wrong. As Chief Judge Nuffer explains:

[T]his is not the first, second, third, or even tenth time Plaintiff’s counsel had missed a deadline in this case….

The roll call of missed deadlines provides 16 incidents where Mumford blew a deadline ranging from missed meet and confers to a failure to “Submit single redlined scheduling order” (emphasis in original). What’s going on over at the offices of the GOP’s lawyer Marcus Mumford? Frankly, I suspect this is just a meddlesome client unwilling to let go of filings like they were faith in South Hamilton County. I mean, 250 pages and exhibits weren’t drafted from scratch in 12 hours. And this problem client is making the lawyer take the fall, which is lame but part of the job — once again the middle class gets screwed by the Republicans.

Sponsored

With that, the judge struck both the 38-page and the 288-page versions of the summary judgment motion, leaving the Republican Party (unless those Constitution Party folks turned in one hell of a brief) in a bind.

If this case really does progress to trial, might we suggest that the GOP get on top of that pre-trial order a week early?

(As always, read the full opinion on the next page.)

1 2Next »

Topics

, , ,