Riley v. Kennedy to be heard by US Supreme Corut
The Supreme Court agreed to hear Governor Riley's appeal today in the case known in the Supreme Court as Riley v. Kennedy, No. 07-77. The order from the Court is here.
The Governor's reply brief was filed a couple of weeks ago. It is here.
The Questions Presented by the Governor are the following:
This Section 5 litigation involves two decisions of the Supreme Court of Alabama, Stokes v. Noonan, 534 So. 2d 237 (Ala. 1988), and Riley v. Kennedy, 928 So. 2d 1013 (Ala. 2005). Those decisions concern the manner of filling vacancies on the Mobile County Commission and are based on valid, race-neutral, generally-applicable principles of law. The three-judge district court held that both decisions required preclearance to be enforceable. The State submitted the decisions for preclearance, and the Attorney General of the United States interposed an objection. The district court then entered a remedy order vacating a gubernatorial appointment that had relied on these State court decisions to fill a vacancy that had arisen. This appeal presents the following questions:
1. Whether the decision of a covered jurisdiction’s highest court that a precleared State law is unconstitutional and, thereby, invalid as a matter of State law is a change that affects voting that must be precleared before it can be enforced.
2. Whether the preclearance of a trial court’s ruling that affects voting while that ruling is on appeal and subject to possible reversal establishes a baseline such that the reversal of that decision is a change that must be precleared before it may be enforced.
Disclosure: I am one of the counsel for Rep. Yvonne Kennedy in the case.
I have uploaded the briefs in the Riley v. Kennedy case on my law firm website:
Complaint, answer, trial briefs,
District court decision,
Denial of preclearance,
Jurisdictional Statement and Motion to Dismiss or Affirm,
Governor's reply brief and SCOTUS order.