Buckeye Institute Challenges Magistrate Recommendations in Voting Rights Case Against ACORN
May 15, 2009
COLUMBUS - The Buckeye Institute, a Columbus-based think tank, Friday filed objections to a federal Magistrate's conclusion that individual voters lack standing to protect their voting rights from groups like the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) and Project Vote.
The Buckeye Institute's objections are the latest turn in a case seeking to designate ACORN as enterprise engaged in organized crime and revoke its license to engage in unlawful voter registration in Ohio. The objections cites to federal cases from the civil rights-era, where courts found that citizens had standing to protect their civil rights from Ku Klux Klan intimidation.
"The right to cast a vote in an election that is not perpetually threatened with dilution by unlawful votes is a fundamental right, and if Ohio voters like Ms. Miller and Ms. Grant cannot enforce that right, the right itself is eviscerated," Maurice Thompson, Director of the Buckeye Institute's 1851 Center for Constitutional Law said.
The recommendation was not based on the merits of the Institute's case, but rather on the issue of "standing," or a plaintiff's right to pursue a case. The Institute is optimistic that the federal judge overseeing the case will reject the erroneous conclusions reached by the Magistrate.
Federal Magistrates have no authority to decide cases; they make recommendations to their respective judge. Judge Weber of U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio must now weigh the Magistrate's recommendations and the Buckeye Institute's objections.
The Magistrate's recommendations come on the heels of the Nevada Attorney General's decision to indict ACORN for crimes similar to those alleged in the Buckeye Institute's Complaint.
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Maurice A. Thompson is the Director of the Buckeye Institute's 1851 Center for Constitutional Law, a Center dedicated to protecting the constitutional rights of Ohioans from government abuse. Prior to coming to the Buckeye Institute, Mr. Thompson was an attorney for the Sam Adams Foundation in Chicago. In addition, he has practiced privately in Ohio and Illinois, and clerked for a judge in Ohio.
Mr. Thompson is a native Ohioan. He undertook undergraduate studies in economics and philosophy at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and studied law at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.
