The U.S. Supreme Court began its 2002-'03 term Monday by declaring it will not hear the Republican legal challenge to the Democrats' replacement of U.S. Sen. Robert Torricelli, D-N.J., on the official ballot.
The decision will maintain the unanimous ruling by the New Jersey Supreme Court to allow former U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg to take the current senator's place on the ballot after Torricelli decided to drop out past the legal deadline.
Another lawsuit was dismissed by federal district court today concerning the abridgement of voter's rights due to the lack of time absentee voters would have to vote if new ballots would need to be made with Lautenberg's name on them. Judge Garrett Brown said the federal court did not have
the authority to intervene in state matters.
\Certainly we're disappointed,"" William E. Baroni Jr., one of the Republicans' lawyers, said. ""The litigation is over.'
With numerous cases seeking hearing with the court on such hot-button issues as affirmative action, campaign finance reform, terrorism and gay rights the court decided to avoid another political election case almost two year's after voting to stop the ballot recount in Florida in the presidential race between George W. Bush and Al Gore.
""I don't think any court wants to revisit any sort of comparison to Bush against Gore,"" said Gordon Baldwin, emeritus professor of law at UW-Madison. ""So its no surprise. It was basically a last-ditch effort by Republicans.""
Of potential interest to UW-Madison students is the possibility that the court may hear the University of Michigan Law School case regarding the use of race as a factor in the institution's admissions standards.
Some white students claim the university's policy is a form of reverse discrimination. However, UW-Madison assistant political science professor Harold Schweber, who teaches a class on constitutional law, said he feels the decision will not affect government entities outside of the university realm.
""The Michigan case is important,"" he said. ""But, barring something really drastic [it] will involve mainly tinkering, that is striking down some programs and upholding others.""
With approximately half of the total cases to be heard by the court already picked, many legal experts feel the term will be defined by the revisiting of a number of issues, but Baldwin said he does not expect any drastic changes to take place during this term.
""Remember lawyers are by and large conservative,"" he said. ""So, no, I don't see anything dramatic happening. They will write their opinions narrowly.""
