As I mentioned, I’m chairing a panel on universal voter registration at the ACS convention in DC on Friday. That means that I’ll be boarding a plane early tomorrow morning in Burbank. Just as they close the doors to the plane at 7:15 am Pacific time, it is possible that the Supreme Court will hand down its opinion in Citizens United. (It is also possible that an opinion could come down in NAMUDNO, but that was argued the very last argument day of the term and likely will have a lengthy dissent however it comes out, so I don’t expect it until closer to June 29, what I hear may be the last day of the term.) To find out if the opinion issues, check SCOTUSblog and How Appealing
If the opinion issues, I hope I’ll be able to download it on my phone and read it on the first leg of my flight before they close the cabin door. If so, then I hope to do a blog post as I change planes in Dallas. At the very least, I hope to post a few thoughts from my phone via Twitter.
But the day may be big for Coleman-Franken too. Back on April 30 law professor Peter Knapp predicted an opinion from the State Supreme Court in Coleman-Franken tomorrow. The rumors are now flying that an opinion will be out tomorrow. (I expect these rumors are credible. The MN Supreme Court usually gives advanced notice to litigants that a ruling is coming, and probably they have received that notice.) Though the time for opinion release is not specified, the usual time for issuing opinions by this court is 10 am Central Time. If it happens, it should be posted here. Again, if I can get my hands on the opinion while I fly (maybe in Dallas), I will try to blog about the decision as soon as I can.
If the Coleman ruling issues, and as expected, the Minnesota Supreme Court affirms (likely unanimously) for Franken, I think we will quickly know whether this is going to be legal story or a political one. If Coleman is going to concede, I think he’ll likely do it the same day or the next day after the ruling (shades of Al Gore). If he’s going to fight in the U.S. Supreme Court or file a separate federal court action, I’m pretty sure that decision will have already been made, and that would probably be announced quickly afterwards. There will be intense pressure on Coleman to announce something quickly about his future, and I expect he will do so. (For my thoughts on a possible cert. petition or separate federal lawsuit, see my pieces in Slate, the ACS blog, and the LA Times.)
Or maybe nothing happens tomorrow. We’ll see.