THE RIDGEWOOD BLOG.
The Ridgewood Blog Brings a Free Market Laissez-faire Point of View to Local, New Jersey State and National Issues.
>Recall Senator Menendez : "Recall Committee has a constitutional right to a certified recall petition"
>Patriots and Friends,
Moments after my last email to you, I received a New Press Release regarding the Menendez Recall.
A judge in the Superior Court of New Jersey Appellate Division has granted an application to file an emergent motion in the case of Committee to Recall Robert Menendez v. Nina Wells, Secretary of State, et al. On Thursday, January 14th, Judge Jack Sabatino issued an order allowing the plaintiff to file a motion to accelerate the appeal and to file the supporting brief.
Attorneys for The Committee to Recall Robert Menendez from the United States Senate, plaintiff, filed the application on Wednesday, seeking an accelerated review of a “final determination” of January 11, 2010, made by state election officials on a Notice of Intention to Recall filed by the committee. The election officials’ determination not only prohibits the plaintiff from moving forward with the recall petition under New Jersey’s Uniform Recall Election Law, but also suggests that New Jersey’s recall statutes, as well as the recall provisions in the New Jersey Constitution adopted in 1993, are unconstitutional. The relevant provision, Article 1, Paragraph 2B, states that the people may recall “any elected official in this State or representing this State in the United States Congress”…
“After ignoring the statutes for almost four months, the Secretary of State has unilaterally declared that the statutes and Article 1, Paragraph 2B of the New Jersey Constitution is unconstitutional,” said Daniel Silberstein, one of the attorneys representing the Recall Committee.
Silberstein and Richard Luzzi, co-counsel for the plaintiff, will appeal based upon the premise that the Recall Committee has a constitutional right to a certified recall petition, which should also be considered political speech, a type of speech afforded the highest protection by both State and Federal courts. They maintain that the Committee should be permitted to collect signatures on a certified petition and present the required number of signatures to call an election, before a court intervenes to resolve any questions surrounding the validity of New Jersey Constitution’s recall provision and the Uniform Recall Election Law.
The Entire Press Release can be found for our members on our website: www.njteapartycoalition.org
It will be posted later today at http://www.njteapartiesunited.org/
An interesting article written by the Liberty Chick about the Recall can be found on the Big Government website.
http://biggovernment.com/2010/01/17/is-new-jerseys-state-constitution-unconstitutional-campaign-to-recall-senator-menendez-turns-into-battle-of-the-constitutions/
Brian
On behalf of our committee,
Tim, Michele, Rae and Myself
