Miller to Continue Case in Federal Court

The Anchorage Daily News and the Miller campaign both reported overnight that US Senate Candidate Joe Miller will continue his case in federal court arguing on the US Constitution's Election and Equal Protection clauses. Miller, however, is withdrawing his motion, which led to the federal injunction on the State of Alaska certifying the election. The withdrawal, or the judge's lifting of the injunction irrespective of Miller's actions means that Sen. Murkowski will be seated in the next Congress and retain her seniority on committees.

Judge Beistline will rule from the filing of both Joe Miller and the State of Alaska, so there will not be any oral arguments made by either side. Miller first filed his suit in federal court, but Judge Beistline directed him to file in the state court system. Miller lost his case at the Superior (trial) court and the state Supreme Court unanimously upheld the Superior Court's ruling.

From the US District Court, where Miller's federal case resides, the next stop is a Circuit Court of Appeals proceeding, and the final stop is the US Supreme Court which may or may not grant Certiorari to hear the case, assuming Miller pursues the case beyond the federal trial level.

Constitutional Arguments

In its court filings, the Miller legal team pointed out several issues that require further review including: whether the U.S. Constitution’s Election Clause was violated by ignoring the legislature’s mandatory provisions for write-in candidates; whether the U.S. Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause was violated by the different vote counting standards that were applied, dependent on the candidate in question; and other issues such as at least hundreds of felons voting and at least hundreds of ballots being filled out by a handful of people.