Ohio2006 Blog

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Tuesday, November 21

Chandra Exonerated at Contempt Hearing in Voter ID Case

Today in Columbus, U.S. District Court Judge Algenon Marbley vacated the motion to show cause filed by lawyers for Secretary of State Ken Blackwell (R-Cincinnati) and Attorney General Jim Petro (R-Rocky River) against plaintiffs' attorney Subodh Chandra in the voter ID lawsuit, NEOCH v. Blackwell. I don't have a copy of the order yet, but I am told that the judge specifically ruled that Chandra's act of sending an e-mail to all 88 boards of elections last Friday, attaching court documents and urging compliance with the consent order and agreed enforcement order in the case, constituted neither contempt of court nor a violation of attorney disciplinary rules. The court did scold Chandra about taking that unilateral step to secure compliance with the court's orders, and he agreed to refrain from doing so in the future.

I hope to add more detail when available.

1 Comments:

At 1:38 AM, Blogger LorraineB said...

Bravo to Subodh Chandra. Given the well-documented history, we can't take it for granted that the county boards will be told (or will find out on their own) about rulings that affect their operations. Election day '06 itself is proof of that.

So Blackwell and Petro found it embarassing that Chandra was doing their job for them. Boo hoo. Whether they're still trying to cover up their ongoing conspiracy to obstruct democracy or just trying to cover up their extreme incompetence, it's clear that Blackwell & Petro are both desperately scrambling at this point.

And huge kudos to Judge Marbley for consistently siding with democracy in his rulings.

 

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