Federal Appeals Court Dismisses Challenge to Decision to Strip Florida of Convention Delegates
ATLANTA — A federal appeals court dismissed a lawsuit against the Democratic National Committee over the party’s decision to strip Florida of its delegates to its national convention.
But the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a ruling released Friday, said the lawsuit “raises a number of interesting and potentially significant questions,” and gave the plaintiff an opening to amend and refile the lawsuit.
The plaintiff, Victor DiMaio, a Democratic Party activist from Tampa, Fla., said he would refile.
DiMaio filed the lawsuit in 2007 accusing the party of disenfranchising Florida’s Democratic voters by barring them from having their say in choosing their party’s nominee. The party stripped both Florida and Michigan of their national convention delegates because they moved their primaries to January dates that were earlier than party rules allowed.
The Democratic National Committee argued the party has the right to set its own rules and not seat delegates who refuse to follow them.
The three-judge panel agreed with a U.S. district judge in Tampa who dismissed the challenge, saying that DiMaio “undeniably” lacked standing to bring the lawsuit because he had yet to vote in the Florida primary when it was filed.
“Since DiMaio’s complaint does not allege any actual or imminent injury, nor suggest in any way how that ‘injury’ could be redressed by a favorable judgment, we are without jurisdiction to entertain the appeal,” the ruling said.
But the ruling suggested he could file another challenge, now that he has voted in the Jan. 29 contest.
The Democratic National Committee said it was pleased with the decision.
“As two U.S. District Courts in Florida have found, and as the Supreme Court has consistently recognized, national political parties have a constitutionally protected right to manage and conduct their own internal affairs, including the enforcement of delegate selection rules,” it said in a statement.
DiMaio told The Associated Press he was encouraged by the ruling and would amend his lawsuit and return to court.
“This is a big victory,” said DiMaio, who said he is neutral in the presidential race. “As close as this election can be, these little votes can make a big difference in who could be the next president of the United States. That’s why I’m anxious and ready to go. And the clock is really ticking.”
Florida and Michigan have had so far fruitless discussions about possibly redoing their primaries. Any redo would have to be completed by June 10 to be counted under Democratic National Committee rules.
DiMaio’s attorney, Michael Steinberg said he hopes the case is decided before the party’s national convention starts on Aug. 25 in Denver.
If they succeed and push an Obama candidacy on us when we voted Clinton, we can also actively campaign for the “other” candidate. At this point, that’s the healthier choice.
Don’t worry about your vote Florida and Michigan.
It may not be important to the Democrats right now, but watch how they try to get your “real” vote in November!
They will be all around both states preaching how it was wrong then and we should forgive them.
Don’t fall for it!
Any organization that would have public officials agree to strip votes is no good and neither was the public official that agreed to strip votes!
In November it will be our turn to snub the Democrats!
Remember, no contributions, volunteering or hanging campaign signs can have a profound affect!
I love Florida. Michigan is pretty “cool” too!
Thank you Motown. The car you folks made for me runs great!
Good Ideas.
It is well known that Hillary Clinton bites the heads off kittens and baby ducks. And she has never denied it.
I believe that the DNC should not have the right to tell the state what to do and what not to do. The governor of the state is in charge not the DNC. Howard Dean needs to be removed as chairman and the DNC should not be in charge over the state. Michigan and Florida should have the right to change their primary dates and make their own rules not the DNC. Howard Dean endorsed Obama and he doesn’t want Hillary to get those delegates because she will be closing the gap on Obama. The courts should block the DNC from those rules and let Michigan and Florida seat their delegates.
Don’t worry about your vote Florida and Michigan.
It may not be important to the Democrats right now, but watch how they try to get your “real” vote in November!
They will be all around both states preaching how it was wrong then and we should forgive them.
Don’t fall for it!
Any organization that would have public officials agree to strip votes is no good and neither was the public official that agreed to strip votes!
In November it will be our turn to snub the Democrats!
Remember, no contributions, volunteering or hanging campaign signs can have a profound affect!
I love Florida. Michigan is pretty “cool” too!
Thank you Motown. The car you folks made for me runs great!
Lets get this over with split the vote evenly, michigan and florida.
disqualified by the D.N.C was the rightful thing to do since both
states did an early primary. So if you say it’s unconstitutional,
then you should not belong to the D.N.C.
I am a resident of Illinois, my state’s original vote was scheduled for March 18th - yet my state moved it up to Feb 5th AND allowed for early voting during the month of January. Can someone please explain why the DNC found this acceptable and Florida was punished? I absolutely believe ALL votes should be counted, everyone should be heard. If Dean is going to be a stickler on rules, then apply those rules to all states not just the ones Obama won. As far as Michigan,(since all names weren’t on ballot)both candidates should split the cost of revote 50/50.
I am a resident of Illinois, my state’s original vote was scheduled for March 18th - yet my state moved it up to Feb 5th AND allowed for early voting during the month of January. Can someone please explain why the DNC found this acceptable and Florida was punished? I absolutely believe ALL votes should be counted, everyone should be heard. If Dean is going to be a stickler on rules, then apply those rules to all states not just the ones Obama won. As far as Michigan, (since all names weren’t on ballot) would candidates be willing to split the cost of revote 50/50?
Now that is a true American standing up for his rights! It is unconstitutional for the right of any one voter to be decided upon without his or her consent much less under the order of someone who did this to millions of people in the two states. Who asked the voters that were affected for their opinion on whether or not they wanted the primary moved up? That in itself is very unconstitutional.