Earlier in the week, I posted on a decision by the Court of Appeals in Orange County agreeing to hear arguments on a writ filing on behalf of Trung Nguyen, who won the election day balloting for First District Supervisor, but in a recount, was deemed by the Orange County Registrar of Voters to then be the loser. Janet Nguyen was sworn in after being certified with margin of votes you could count on two hands. Anyway, I threw out an amazing statistic about how the Appeals Court only hears 1 in 100 or so writs that are filed with the court, and made it sound like that hurdle had been jumped by Trung’s legal team.
In another reminder of why we should let lawyers blog about this legal-beagle stuff, I was wrong. The Court has not agreed to hear the matter, they have agreed to take written testimony on why they should or should not hear the matter.
So while I would imagine it is not that easy to get even to the point where the Appellate Court wants to hear such arguments, Trung Nguyen’s legal challenge to the original Judge’s decision to certify Janet Nguyen’s election still is on "this side" of that 1 in a 100 hurdle.
By the way, Janet’s legal team has some very real concerns about whether Trung Nguyen even has the legal right to ask for a writ in this case. More fodder for the court to consider.
We’ll see what happens in early May. In the meantime, smart money is still on Janet to retain her new post (though, like I said, never ever count out Mike Schroeder, who is jockeying the legal stuff for Trung Nguyen).