Madfloridian's Journal - Hope for Hillary's Florida delegates? FL lawsuit against the DNC gets new life.

Here is the background from last October when the suit was dismissed by a Tampa judge.

Tampa activist lawsuit against DNC to be appealed in Atlanta appeals court

TAMPA - The first legal challenge to the Democratic National Committee's refusal to seat Florida's delegates to the party's national convention next year was thrown out of federal court Friday.

Calling the matter "an intra-party dispute," U.S. District Judge Richard Lazzara concluded the arguments made by Tampa-based Democratic voter and political consultant Victor DiMaio contained no legal basis for challenging the national party. Lazzara wrote, "The Supreme Court has consistently recognized that national political parties have a constitutionally protected right to manage and conduct their own internal affairs, including the enforcement of delegate-selection rules and the decision as to which state delegates it will recognize … ."

The activist then said " this is only the first inning and first bite of the apple … ."

Now the case has been successfully appealed, and it will be given a hearing.

A federal appeals court agrees to hear arguments on a bid to make votes count.

Democrats may be focused on the upcoming Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania primaries to get a better idea of who their presidential nominee may be.

But a federal appeals court in Atlanta is giving them one more reason to keep at least a wandering eye on Florida.

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has agreed to hear oral arguments from a Tampa man seeking to have Florida's Jan. 29 Democratic presidential preference primary votes count.

The decision is no indication of how the court views the merits of the lawsuit. But many suits are rejected on written pleadings alone, which was the case when the suit was filed in the lower court.

So now here we go.

I recently said there were two lawsuits and a Supreme Court hearing on the side of the DNC

Oopsy, guess I was wrong. Maybe Bill Nelson should appeal Nelson v Dean as well. He might win on appeal also.

Nelson v Dean was dismissed..tried to use civil rights issues.

If Hillary gets those delegates from Florida, if they count toward her getting the nomination....she will have lost all the respect I had for her. I have already lost lost what respect I had for Florida Democrats who lied all the way through this primary issue. They blamed it on the DNC, though they were in on it all the way with a vote of 115 to 1 for it.

I feel sick inside. I heard that this might be appealed all the way to the Supreme Court. Anyone else see where this is going? Anyone see the implications for November?

I was right when I wrote this on January 29, when Hillary came to celebrate her Florida win.

I thnk Bill Nelson just declared the battle is beginning.

"In this primary, some even tried to silence our state," Nelson said as he endorsed Clinton from the stage Tuesday night. "Hillary Clinton will never let that happen."

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Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton (second from left) thanks supporters with Congressman Bill Nelson of Florida, Congressman Alcee Hastings of Florida, Miami Mayor Manny Diaz and U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-F.L.) (left-right) after polls closed at the Signature Grand in Davie, Florida on Tuesday, January 29, 2008.