CJ Roberts wrote:
bogus info wrote:
What's the story on this clerk Danny Bickle?
A guy doing his job getting tangled up with a bunch of attorneys with zero understanding on how the Supreme Court functions.
OK, for you lawyers -- > here is the time line, as near as I can reconstruct it:
Donofrio sues the NJ SOS trying to get McCain & Obama's name removed from the ballot. Sometime prior to the November election his petition for injunction is denied by the NJ Supreme Court.
Then, a few days before the election, he submits an "Application for Stay" (of the denial of injunction) to Justice Souter. The clerk notifies him that the papers will not be submitted because they are improper, explaining, in Donofrio's words
"since I had asked for an “injunction” in the NJ Supreme Court, then I needed to request an “injunction” in the US Supreme Court as well."Donofrio threw a tantrum and asked RSOL for help to get around the nasty clerk, resulting in a campaign of nasty & threatening phone calls to the clerk. Exasperated, the clerk "reluctantly" filed the "application for stay" to Souter, who of course denied it. Donofrio resubmitted, was denied again. He repeated the same farce with the Wrotnowski application, which of course was denied.
In all that time, Donofrio never submitted either a properly constructed petition for either injunctive relief or for certiorari, in either case.
For you non-lawyers reading this:
A "stay" is an order which STOPS and affirmative order issued by a lower court.
Example 1: Florida Supreme Court orders recount; US Supreme Court issues "stay" to stop the recount from taking place, pending hearing on the petition for certiorari. (
Bush v. Gore)
Example 2: State trial court orders that Defendant BadGuy shall be executed at midnight on February 29. US Supreme Court issues "stay" to stop state from killing BadGuy.
Donofrio's law suit asked the state of New Jersey to remove Obama & McCain's name from the ballot. If he had succeeded, then opposing counsel could have gone to the Supreme Court to request a "stay" of the order directing that the names be removed. But this did not happen.
Instead, Donofrio's petition was denied. You can never "appeal" from a denial of a petition for an extraordinary writ, as there is no order to appeal from. Nor is there anything to "stay". (It's like dividing by 0 -- you would be asking the higher court to stop the effect of an order that did nothing). So you always have to simply file a renewed petition for extraordinary writ at every successive court until the relief you want is granted.
So basically: Donofrio files wrong type of papers in Supreme Court. Clerk tries to explain to him what's wrong. Donfofrio insists on right to file wrong type of papers, enlists support of all his friends. Clerk relents, allowing Donofrio to suffer the natural consequences of his own stupidity.