I saw Pat Toomey today at a rally in Stroudsburg. With one day of notice, there was probably 35 to 45 people there. He sounded very confident that he would win.
In this post-Civil War case, the Court unanimously upheld a law that stripped the Court of authority to hear appeals from persons imprisoned during the Civil War who sought release from custody under an 1867 habeas corpus statute. Republican leaders in Congress feared that the Supreme Court, which had already indicated hostility toward the Reconstruction program, would use McCardle to hold much of that program unconstitutional. Consequently, Congress repealed the 1867 act on which McCardle's appeal was founded. This was an obvious attempt by Congress to use the exceptions clause to deprive the Court of its appellate power to review the substantive constitutionality of congressional acts. Moreover, the repealing act was not passed until after the case already had been argued before the Supreme Court. Nonetheless, the Court at once dismissed the case for want of jurisdiction.
We're still not sure who the graduation speaker at the law school will be (it's a week later). Word on the street is that it will be Sandra Day O'Connor.
P.S. Last year Rudy Giuliani spoke at the main graduation.
Forgive me for being cynical, but what is the citation for that law? Even if the Dems dropped to Row C, they would have the largest voter registration of any party. I doubt they would be removed from the Board of Elections.