Supreme Ct. rules for Barbour, special election set for Nov. 4

[TacticalPeek]

Source: Madison County Journal

2/6/2008
Supreme Ct. rules for Barbour, special election set for Nov. 4

By ANDREW UJIFUSA
Assistant Managing Editor

The Mississippi Supreme Court ruled in favor of Gov. Haley R. Barbour that the special election for former Sen. Trent Lott's seat should be held on Nov. 4.

In doing so the court denied an appeal by Attorney General Jim Hood of an earlier Circuit Court ruling by Hinds County Circuit Court Judge Bobby DeLaughter that the special election should be held on or before March 19.

snip

Hood had argued before the courts that state law required the special election to be held within 90 days of Lott's resignation from the office.

Justice James E. Graves, Jr., in his written dissent, called the majority opinion "gobbledygook."

"The office of the Governor does not exist to decide when elections are held; that power rests with the Legislature. Nor is the Governor responsible for formulating policy or rules to fill any gap in the applicable statutes," Graves wrote.

Read more: http://www.onlinemadison.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=19851&TM=66650.97

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The law says 90 days after Lott's resignation, hence the designation "gobbledygook" for the opinion.

All you need to know about how this comes about is in John Grisham's The Appeal:
http://www.amazon.com/Appeal-John-Grisham/dp/0385515049/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1202366280&sr=8-2