Donofrio Case (Certifigate): STILL PENDING according to Supreme Court

Here ^ | today | self

[DouglasKC]

Is there still hope?

Legal minds needed.

This order list was released by the United States Supreme Court on Monday, 12/8/2008.

Near the top, in the category "ORDERS IN PENDING CASES" is this:

08A407 DONOFRIO, LEO C. V. WELLS, NJ SEC. OF STATE

The application for stay addressed to Justice Thomas and referred to the Court is denied.

But here's the thing. The application for stay is denied. But the case IS pending. The document seems to be separating out a certain number of cases as "Orders in Pending Cases."

For example, right below the Donofrio case is this:

08M32 PONEK, JOHN V. FLORIDA

There is nothing there saying anything is denied. The rest of the document contains no reference to this.

Question: Are these the pending cases and does this mean that the case is still alive and the only thing denied was the "stay" to stop the electors from meeting?

Legal minds and advise needed. Please weigh in.

What does this mean? Lawyers?

[DouglasKC]

Ya know, I didn't even see that post from about the lawyer/reference librarian. I still can't see what's wrong with my analysis, but I figured that Donofrio would know what was what. I kind of gave up because everybody seemed to think that it was dead.

I'm not sure though.

[STARWISE]

~~PING to #36

unspun: sorry, your link does NOT work.

[CaribouCrossing]

Wow, interesting. Still waiting, reading and watching here. Surely one of these lawsuits is going to go somewhere. Thanks for the pings, STARWISE, they are appreciated.

[seekthetruth]

I thought Leo was going to be on with Ed tonight at 9:00 Texas time? They have a music show on. What’s up?

[MilspecRob]

Roberts will have to swear in Obama so I would think he is going to give this careful consideration

When he dismisses this one I'm sure he will have

[Red Steel]

I’m a law student nearing graduation and after looking things over and reading through it all, the Court is not willing to hear it and will likely not hear any cases of this type. I’m guessing their reasoning is that it is too political or they don’t buy the evidence. Since the Court shot it down, this isn’t going anywhere, it’s over and done. 3 and out.

Scalia could have easily denied Wrotnowski's case outright, but he did not. He could have easily denied both cases at once, Donofrio and Wronowski cases, but he did not.

Wrotnowski's case is a better written case than the one Donofrio sent to the court. Scalia thinking may be that he wanted the best of the two cases.

If Scalia wanted to send an 'unambiguous message' to Donofrio or Wrotnoski from the court, he would have done this below:

No. 07A638
Title:	Ate Kays Company, Applicant v. Pennsylvania Department of General Services, et al.
Docketed:
Lower Ct:	Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, Eastern District

Case Nos.:

(175 EM 2007)

~~~Date~~~	~~~~~~~Proceedings  and  Orders~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Feb 1 2008	Application (07A638) for a stay pending appeal, submitted to Justice Souter.
Feb 2 2008	Application (07A638) denied by Justice Souter.
Feb 6 2008	Application (07A638) refiled and submitted to Justice Scalia.
Feb 7 2008	Application (07A638) denied by Justice Scalia.

-------------------------------------------

Scalia sent an 'unambiguous message' to this lawyer on the case... A case that went nowhere, 3 and done, not even to conference.

[Cicero]

Thanks for the ping. I knew that Donofrio was still listed, but thought perhaps the clerks hadn’t caught up yet.

Well, I guess we’ll just put this on hold and see what happens. It does seem to me that it would be only sensible for the conservatives on SCOTUS to take several of these applications, since there appear to be at least three things that need to be considered: the fact that Obama was born (apparently) to a Kenyan father. The fact that he refuses to release his full birth certificate. And the fact that he appears to have been adopted by his stepfather and given Indonesian dual citizenship, or perhaps his parents agreed to relinquish his American citizenship in accordance with Indonesian law.

In other words, the question before the court is whether Obama is a Natural Born Citizen in accordance with the constitutional requirement, and all of these issues appear to be relevant. But I think even constitutional lawyers find it hard to predict what the court will do.

So Donofrio is in limbo at the moment, but could be revived. Or perhaps re-introduced as amicus curiae?

[Dajjal]

I just posted the comment & link to Post# 30 at Leo Donofrio's webpage “DONOFRIO APPLICATION DENIED - WROTNOWSKI APPLICATION STILL PENDING”.

The page has 376 comments, and mine is waiting for a mod to approve it.

But the very first comment has it right (by the lawyer/librarian's take):

MrX Says:
December 8, 2008 at 11:51 am
The stay was denied, but not the writ. Says your case is still pending. Could they still be considering the writ portion? Do you need to file one with the proper heading? I know you’re out of time, but for future elections, it may be worth seeing it through.

[BCR #226]

ping

[Dajjal]

Should've pinged you to Post# 48.

[Blu By U]

“Could they still be considering the writ portion..”

—
So if they take up the writ. What does that mean? That they open an investigation? That they demand lower courts records regarding the case? What?

[Dajjal]

In the lawyer / reference librarian's explanation of the SCOTUS Order List, he compared Donofrio's case to a hypothetical capital punishment case.

He said that at a SCOTUS conference, you need 4 justices to agree to hear the case, but you need 5 justices to apporve an Application of Stay.

He said that it "often" happens that a death row convict's lawyer's Application of Stay will be denied, but that the SC will agree to hear the case. So the actual client will already be dead by the time the SC hears the case and overturns his conviction.

So the SC has already voted not to grant Donofrio his Application of Stay against NJ SoS Wells. But they have not voted whether to hear the appeal of Donofrio v. Wells.

[CharacterCounts]

He said that it "often" happens that a death row convict's lawyer's Application of Stay will be denied, but that the SC will agree to hear the case. So the actual client will already be dead by the time the SC hears the case and overturns his conviction.

Can he provide a cite to a Supreme Court case where that has actually happened?

[Dajjal]

If I see him, I’ll ask. Don’t hold your breath.

[Blu By U]

client will already be dead by the time the SC hears the case and overturns his conviction.
**

That’s messed up.. Likewise, Obuma could serve out 2 terms before they might determine his eligability? That would be messed up too.

[piytar]

To be fair, I should post what I’d shortly posted earlier on a previous thread:

“Best analysis of the situation I’ve seen. The only way this gets traction is if the SCOTUS takes the case and orders production of the original BC. They probably know the facts already, too, and know he wasn’t born in Hawaii (why else would Zer0 spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to fight releasing his long form BC?) However, they don’t want to cause a Constitutuional Crisis, so they won’t touch it, either, so they probably won’t act.
This means that the Constitution is effectively a dead letter, but with Zer0 elected, that was inevitable.”

That was before I really though about the Supremes...

[STARWISE]

On Leo’s site:

#

and not his country.
#
Star Says: Your comment is awaiting moderation.
December 10, 2008 at 10:17 pm

[Ed. Technically, I could file a full petition for writ of cert... but I’m not going to. Cort’s case is strong and the issue is squarely before them. Tomorrow I will do an analysis of Cort’s case vs. my case to explain all of the reasons why Cor’s case is better.]

Leo, I’ve been asked to pass along some information for your consideration from a person who’s unable to access your website while at work. Here’s his info:

~~~~

This order list was released by the United States Supreme Court on Monday, 12/8/2008. Near the top, in the category “ORDERS IN PENDING CASES” is this:

08A407 DONOFRIO, LEO C. V. WELLS, NJ SEC. OF STATE The application for stay addressed to Justice Thomas and referred to the Court is denied. But here’s the thing. The application for stay is denied. But the case IS pending.

The document seems to be separating out a certain number of cases as “Orders in Pending Cases.”

For example, right below the Donofrio case is this:

08M32 PONEK, JOHN V. FLORIDA

There is nothing there saying anything is denied. The rest of the document contains no reference to this.

Question: Are these the pending cases and does this mean that the case is still alive and the only thing denied was the “stay” to stop the electors from meeting? Legal minds and advise needed. Please weigh in. What does this mean? Lawyers?

I just asked a lawyer who is also a reference librarian at a university law library, and he said that your interpretation of the posting is correct: that the Supreme Court has denied Donofrio’s Application for an Emergency Stay, but that their consideration of hearing the case itself is still pending.

I must admit, I was surprised. I was expecting him to say the opposite, since it seems everyone is reporting that the SCOTUS has made the decision not to hear Donofrio v. Wells.

~~~

Thank you, God bless you and God bless and protect America!

[BonRad]

Yes, amazing if true. Amazing. What a find unspun.

[hoosiermama]

O=Bump=a

[unspun]

You could be right, and Scalia, Roberts, Alito, and Thomas have the “stones” to accept cert (only 4 are needed), constitutional crisis worries be d@mned. I HOPE you are right, I mean...

Good comments, but we have been in a constitutional crisis since the Iowa Caucuses.