Ralph Nader Ragesoss Flickr photo
Where is Ralph Nader these days? In court, taking his battle to reform ballot access laws in the United States to the judiciary. Nader is fighting an alleged conspiracy hatched against him in Boston at the time of the 2004 Democratic National Convention held in the city.
Ralph has successfully defended his federal appellate win in Arizona over the state's unconstitutional restrictions on petition circulators. Arizona banned out-of-state petitioners, a practice that the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals found to be unconstitutional. Not giving up easily on challenges to the 2-party system that dominates American politics, state officials had asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the appellate decision striking down Arizona's restrictive ballot access law but the high court today decided to let the decision stand.
A leftover from Nader's 2008 presidential campaign? No, the case is a holdover from the 2004 electoral bid by America's most famous consumer protection advocate.
In 2004, Ralph Nader was the target of an unprecedented legal attack in almost two dozen states with 29 legal actions brought, financed or instigated by the Democratic Party. The lawsuits, many of them frivolous, were brought to keep Ralph in court and not on the campaign stump.
After the dust settled, it was clear to Nader that he had been the target of an abuse of the court system by a major political party to deprive him of ballot access. Ralph then filed suit against the Democratic National Committee for the legal conspiracy.
The lawsuit was dismissed at the District Court level of the federal court system and Nader appealed to the District of Columbia U.S. Court of Appeals where oral argument is scheduled for later in the month.
Nader's brief to the appellate court addresses some of the pending issues. Nader charged the Democrats were guilty of "overtly corrupt and even unlawful conduct."
Nader argued the appeal should go forward because, "Defendants denied and fraudulently concealed their tortuous conduct, and because they remain engaged in ongoing acts in furtherance of their unlawful conspiracy."
"Defendants wrongfully invoked state statutes and federal campaign finance laws as a pretext to bankrupt their competitors by forcing them to incur litigation costs in the defense of a pattern of baseless and repetitive claims."
Nader alleges that in Pennsylvania the political conspirators "planted approximately 7,000 fake signatures" in his petitions so they could later claim the petitions were fraudulent. The Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett has indicted a dozen Democrats for illegal work on petition challenges in 2004 in a scandal dubbed "Bonusgate" because the state legislative workers were paid a bonus for their dirty work.
Nader continued his assault on his Democrat opponents, "Conspirators engaged in sabotage and other unlawful acts intended to manufacture grounds for their otherwise baseless litigation."
Nader likened the Democratic lawsuits against him to "malicious prosecution" which were only filed to advance "baseless claims" designed to bankrupt his campaign. The lawsuits were "wrongful and abusive" of the judicial process.
Nader says the conspiracy against him came together in July 2004 in a meeting of thirty-six conspirators at the Four Seasons hotel in Boston. Oral argument is scheduled in the case for March 20th in Washington, D.C.
Comments
Fight On, Ralph!
The two parties are so corrupt, they are destroying themselves!
And the true defender of the constitution is...
RALPH NADER!
Thank You Ralph Nader for holding (Dems) their crooked-feet to the fire in US Courts. Give 'em a good fight!
And to think we live in the greatest country in the world. Our democracy is broken and the duopoly will see that it stays that way. Our government is a corporate run farce.
This country has car seatbelts because of Ralph. He deserves at least a cabinet position rather than this kind of treatment from Democrats. History will reveal him to be the tireless fighter and pioneer that he is rather than the cynical and snide comments that get made. Ralph is Ralph. He has no equal among a nation of 300 million.
Glenn Hopkins
Green Party County Council
LA County, California
While most Democrats were afraid that Nader would take too many votes away from Kerry in '04, I don't believe most of them would condone the actions taken by the party. This issue should have more light shed on it. Like our broken economy, our democracy is not immune from disaster. Ralph Nader deserves our thanks for pointing out some serious wrongs that need correcting.
Thank god for Ralph, I don't know were we would be if it wasn't for him working his ass off for America. He should be on the next coin or stamp and in the oval office!
Democrats & Republicans = The real spoilers.
Support for Ralph Nader is support for the United States of America.
Go Ralph!!!!!
I feel that Nader's lawsuit is very important. Not only for Nader to hold the Democratic Party accountable for what they did in 2004, but in consideration of all third party candidates in the future. Whether a person supported Ralph Nader or not, ANY third party candidacy will likely have to face the same perils unless something is done.
Having met and supported Ralph in the camapign, I know him to be a man of impeccable integrity who forewarned of the "Casino Capitalism" cataclysm Wall street induced by greed for which taxpayers dollars have been extorted for a socialist bailout(for which Ralph offers a payback plan that can be put in place NOW). He has proven solutions to our nation's ills, all of which have a common underpinning: They do NOTHING to put taxpayer or consumer dollars into the pockets of the 1500 or so corporations45,000 lobbyists and 9,00 PACs who have hijacked our democracy, and to which the political class is addicted for campaign cash, spending 4 days a week fudraising to stay/get in/to power for the sake of power itself.
Ralph's name on the ballot and my ability to vote for him makes me grateful. Nader would be saving our country in the white house if more people knew the truth. And I do wish we knew those votes were being counted by humans or at least computers with integrity. I will continue wishing, and appreciating efforts and battles in this ongoing campaign challenge.
the democratic party is a bunch of status quo snakes paving the way to apocalypto. obama is already a war criminal. time to wake up. you're way late. health care, global warming, corporate welfare, alternative energy, unemployment, living wages, the american poor, war and the war budget; are you kidding me? the nader 2008 campaign was the most censored story of the year. GO NADER GO!!
Never say die! I'll be crossing my fingers for Ralph on the 20th.
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