[GPCA Updates] GP RELEASE Green law suit challenges the legitimacy of US Reps from five southern states

Fri Apr 1 17:27:21 PDT 2011

GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org

For Immediate Release:
Friday, April 1, 2011

Green civil action challenges the legitimacy of US Representatives from
southern states

• 'Winner take all' apportionment of presidential electors in Arkansas,
Georgia, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Texas is not grounded in law and violates
the 14th Amendment

WASHINGTON, DC -- A civil action filed by Green Party member Asa Gordon is
challenging the constitutional legitimacy of several US Representives from
southern states.

The civil action (Gordon et al v. Clerk, US House of Representatives,
1:11-cv-00003, filed Jan. 3, 2011), which is now pending before a US District
Court, seeks to enforce the US Constitution's malapportionment penalty (14th
Amendment, Section 2).

The Amendment mandates reduction of a state's presidential electors and
congressional Representatives ("the basis of representation therein shall be
reduced") if "the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for
President and Vice President of the United States... is denied... or in any
way abridged."

The civil action would enjoin the Clerk of the US House of Representatives
from recognizing the full slate of Representatives from "unbounded Southern
electoral states."  It requests that the court take judicial notice that
Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Texas are "unbound presidential
elector states."  After the November 2008 election, these 'unbounded' states
allocated their presidential electors on a 'winner take all' basis, even
though there exists no 'winner take all' election statute in their state
election laws.

"The 'winner take all' apportionment of electors in these states effectively
disenfranchised their citizens who voted for the presidential electors pledged
to any candidate with less than the popular majority vote," said Asa Gordon,
chair of the DC Statehood Green Party's Electoral College Task Force.  Mr.
Gordon can be reached by e-mail at Electorsus at aol.com or dignews at aol.com and
by phone at 202-635-7926.

"These southern states in particular awarded all of their unbounded
presidential electors on a 'winner take all' basis that isn't grounded in any
state or federal law.  In particular, they engaged in de-facto
disenfranchisement of those electors based on the votes of the states'
African-American citizens.  We're seeking either a temporary restraining order
or a preliminary injunction that would prohibit the Clerk of the US House from
including the full slate of unbounded electoral states' congressional
Representatives, which are subject to the malapportionment penalty in the 14th
Amendment to the US Constitution," said Mr. Gordon.

District Court Judge Henry H Kennedy Jr., in a hearing on the civil action's
request for a temporary restraining order on Jan. 4, said, "Mr. Gordon raises
some weighty issues having to do with the consequences or results of an
electoral system where a minority, a minority number of votes are not
recognized, that is when there is a winner-take-all system."

The civil action notes that Section 2 the 14th Amendment requires that
unbounded southern states allocate their presidential electors in proportion
to the popular vote split or suffer the federal statutory mandate to reduce
the states' representatives in Congress.  The 'winner take all' allocation of
electors triggers the malapportionment penalty in Section 2, as implemented by
the "Reduction of Representation" federal statute Section 6 of Title 2 of the
US Code.  This statute creates a remedy for the abridgment in the right "to
vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and
Vice-President of the United States."

"The original intent of Section 2 of the 14th Amendment -- sometimes called
the Reconstruction Amendment -- as implemented by the federal statute was to
place a ruinous penalty on those former confederate states that would effect
'minority vote dilution.'  It took over a century to enforce properly Section
1 of the 14th Amendment.  Let us not allow another century to pass before
enforcing Section 2," said Mr. Gordon.

"The de facto disqualification of legitimate votes in many southern states is
as much an outrage as the irregularities in Florida in 2000 and in Ohio and
other states in 2004 that changed the outcome of presidential elections," said
Darryl L.C. Moch,  member of the DC Statehood Green Party and the Green Party
Black Caucus (http://www.gp.org/caucuses/black/index.php).  "It's also
consistent with the obstructions imposed by many states on alternative party
and independent candidates on the extra-legal assumption that only two parties
deserve recognition."

In earlier civil action, Gordon v. Cheney/Biden (1/28/2008-10), Mr. Gordon
addressed Electoral College malapportionment (see Green Party press releases:
http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=275).  The current action addresses
the malapportionment of Congress.

A letter to House Speaker John Boehner from the DC Statehood Green Party
proposed that the Speaker form a House Committee of Congressional Legitimacy
to study and recommend House rules and procedures to ensure that, in the
current and subsequent sessions of Congress, all US Representatives are in
full compliance with the Constitution and the US Code.  In a companion letter
to the Honorable Karen L. Haas, Clerk of the US House, the DC Statehood Green
Party requested that the Clerk advise the party on how the Office of the Clerk
views its responsibility in this matter.  The party specifically requested
information regarding House procedures for recognizing members from any state
that may be subject to the Constitution's "Reduction of Representation"
mandate and the requirements of the US Code.

Two Louisiana voters have filed a Motion to Intervene as co-plaintiffs in
Gordon et al. v. Clerk, US House, with a plea to "permit the Intervenors to
adopt the existing pleadings, briefs and legal arguments by Plaintiffs". In
response, the Defendant replied to the court that the Defendant "takes no
position on the Motion to Intervene as Co-Plaintiffs" taking exception that
the Intervenors have not been “given an unconditional right to intervene by a
federal statute.”

All court pleadings, videos, press releases and essays are available at
http://www.electors.us

See also "Democratize The Electoral College," Atlanta Daily World, Feb. 17,
2010
(http://www.atlantadailyworld.com/articles/2010/02/22/viewpoints/doc4b7afa734a47e762104017.prt)
and the following sites:
• http://www.nomorestolenelections.org/news/gordon_democratize_electoral_college
• http://www.democracysquare.org/news/gordon_democratize_electoral_college

Green Party press releases
• "Greens launch effort against Electoral College manipulation of presidential
elections" (August 5, 2008) http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=85
• "Greens: Enforce 14th Amendment's 'Right to Vote' Provision" (October 18,
2004) http://www.gp.org/press/pr_10_18_04.html

MORE INFORMATION

Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
• Green candidate database and campaign information:
http://www.gp.org/elections.shtml
• News Center http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtml
• Speakers Bureau http://www.gp.org/speakers
• Ballot Access Page http://www.gp.org/ballotstatus
• Livestream Channel http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus
• Video Page http://www.gp.org/video/index.php

'GreenStream Wednesday': News and discussion on the Green Party's Livestream
channel
http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus

Green Pages: The official publication of record of the Green Party of the
United States (Fall 2010 issue now online)
http://gp.org/greenpages-blog

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