MS-Sen-B: Barbour to Respect the Law?

[ccharles000]

http://swingstateproject.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3082

http://swingstateproject.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3084

We'll believe it when we see it, but Haley Barbour's mouthpiece is claiming that he'll respect the law (for a change) and move Mississippi's Senate election from the bottom of the ballot:

A spokesman for Gov. Haley Barbour says he will move the special election for Trent Lott's old Senate seat off the bottom of the ballot. <...>
His spokesman, Pete Smith, elaborated by saying "the governor is going to comply with the ruling and the Senate race will go near the top."

We'll see.

This is just unreal:

The Mississippi Supreme Court has given a split ruling in a dispute about the ballot placement for Trent Lott's old Senate seat.
A majority of justices ruled Thursday that state law requires the special election between Republican Roger Wicker and Democrat Ronnie Musgrove to be near the top of the November 4th ballot.

But they stopped short of ordering Republican Gov. Haley Barbour to elevate the race off the bottom.

So let's get this straight: The Mississippi Supreme Court (stacked with Barbour allies) says that the ballot is illegal, but stops short of ordering Haley Barbour to comply with the law?

I'm shaking my head in disbelief.

Update: The full decision, including the scathing dissent of Justice Diaz, is below the fold.

Here are a few quotes from the dissent:


Given the governor's recent success at convincing seven members of this Court that a year is sometimes not a year, see Barbour v. State ex. reL Hood, 974 So. 2d 232 (Miss. 2008), one cannot fault him for daring to return to our chamber and insisting that the top is sometimes not the top.

But on the other, by holding that Judge Green exceeded her authority by ordering Governor Barbour and Secretary of State Hosemann to comply with state law, we send out from our chamber little more than a dressed-up request that this now settled law be complied with.
Later Update: Does anyone care to to tell me what the hell this means?


Barbour released a brief statement Thursday after the decision.
"The Supreme Court has spoken; so be it," Barbour said.