From the Associated Press:
HARRISBURG, Pa.—A Pennsylvania court is rejecting former presidential candidate Ralph Nader’s attempt to set aside a judgment against him for the cost of reviewing his 2004 nominating papers.
Commonwealth Court on Thursday ruled that opening or vacating the judgment isn’t justified by newly discovered evidence that employees of the House Democratic caucus may have been used illegally to help keep Nader off the ballot.
Nader’s signature gathering process was called by a judge “the most deceitful and fraudulent exercise ever perpetuated” against that court.
Nader and his vice presidential running mate were ordered to pay $81,000 for stenographers, transcripts and other court costs.
Same here. Not because I like Nader so much, but because the attempted robbery is truly an injustice, much like the ruling gang of China making their victims’ families pay for the bullets used to kill them.
Nader still hasn’t paid a penny of that $81,000. I hope he never does.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/08/politics/campaign/08nader.html?pagewanted=print&position=
What exactly did Nader and his signature gathers do?
Richard suggests further steps in BAN
http://www.ballot-access.org/2008/12/05/pennsylvania-commonwealth-court-wont-re-open-nader-80000-court-costs-from-2004/
On December 4, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth refused to re-open the matter of whether Ralph Nader should pay approximately $80,000 in court costs, over the 2004 petition. Nader had asked that the matter be re-opened, given that earlier this year, the Attorney General indicted many people who challenged Nader’s petitions for using state resources instead of their own resources.
Nader is free to ask the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to reverse the Commonwealth Court, and he and others are also free to file a federal case that would argue that candidates and political parties may not be charged money to pay for election administration. The recent federal case in Wilkes-Barre, that found a violation of the U.S. Constitution because the city forced proponents of an initiative campaign to pay $11,000 for the costs of invalidating their petition, may help.
This is a real shame. Disappointed in my home state.
Associated Press ought to be severely criticized for continually quoting that one lower court judge. Only 1% of Nader’s petitions were found to be forged in Pennsylvania in 2004. That judge is a liar and doesn’t deserve to be quoted over and over again.