This has not been such a great week in my actual professional life. You have your up weeks and your down, and this one has been a downer. So it was nice to learn from a commenter to this post on the Mel Thompson lawsuit that I got it mostly right in my analysis of his lawsuit against the town of Derby and numerous others. The full story is here, from the Connecticut Post.
As I suggested might happen, the court deferred any action on Mr. Thompson’s attempt to be put on the ballot, since he didn’t exhaust his state remedies:
Following a nearly hourlong hearing, Senior U.S. District Judge Warren W. Eginton told Thompson that before he can consider the matter, the candidate must be turned down by a state court judge.
“I need proof that you tried to get relief in state court,” Eginton told the candidate, who was hoping to get his name on absentee ballots that will be printed today. “The presumption is against jurisdiction unless I find a flagrant violation of the constitution,” the judge said.
Thompson could come back to federal court if the state court rules against him, Eginton said.
More importantly, the judge also ruled that the state law claims, including the defamation claim against Connecticut Local Politics, had to go:
Eginton quickly whittled down the rambling 35-page lawsuit by throwing out the negligence, fraud and defamation charges, saying that all the defendants are state residents there is no federal jurisdiction.
“Those are state court matters,” the judge said.
One thing I didn’t call, was this:
He also suggested Thompson amend the suit to eliminate a conspiracy charge, since “a conspiracy case is difficult to prove” and “will take a long time to try.”
I suspect this was the judge’s gentle way of saying that, while the conspiracy allegations are legally sufficent to get by a Motion to Dismiss, they don’t pass the smell test. That is, he can see there’s nothing there, but he can’t legally throw them out until everyone has spent a lot of time and money.
It is odd. If the guy really wanted to get on the ballot he could have gone to state court and, if his story is true, would probably have won. If he really has a letter from the town clerk admitting that she screwed up, then it would seem like an easy victory.
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