Appeals court keeps ‘None’ on ballot, castigates federal judge

An appeals court stay means that “None of These Candidates” remains as an option to Nevada voters and a ploy by Republican operatives is stopped in its tracks. The language in the order was also one of the strongest slapdowns of Chief Judge Robert “Clive” Jones that I’ve read.

Republicans had hoped to gain an advantage for Mitt Romney and Sen. Dean Heller by stripping “None” from the ballot, hoping that more voters would vote for those two if the protest option was removed.

U.S. 9th Circuit Appeals Judge Stephen Reinhardt traced the dilly-dallying by Jones to delay the case from being appealed - much as I did in my column last Saturday.

He was harsher in his condemnation of Jones’ actions writing: “Such arrogance and assumption of power by one individual is not acceptable in our judicial system.”

The stay filed Wednesday means that the ballots can meet the Friday deadline to begin printing and then meet the Sept. 22 deadline for mailing ballots out to military personnel and overseas residents registered to vote in Nevada.

The three-judge panel which stayed Jones’ Aug. 22 preliminary injunction included two appointees by Democratic presidents, Reinhardt and Carlos Bea, and one appointed by a Republican president, Kim Wardlaw.

The timeline indicated to the judges (and me) that Jones deliberately delayed his own actions in the case filed June 8, running out time so that the case couldn’t be appealed until it was too late.

Jones was slow in assigning himself to the case and slow in setting hearings, despite efforts by attorneys to expedite the case. And he knew the deadlines set in Nevada state law were looming.

On top of that, Reinhardt wrote that Secretary of State Ross Miller was likely to prevail on the merits because there was no basis to conclude the 1975 law was unconstitutional, as Jones had ruled.

The record showed it was plain Jones was making a “deliberate attempt to evade review by the higher courts,” Reinhardt wrote.

Unless there’s another appeal and this court’s stay is lifted before Friday, Nevadans will retain the option of showing their disdain in federal and statewide races.

Meanwhile, Jones’ reputation has been tarnished in what appears to be a deliberate effort to help Romney, at least in Nevada.

Both Jones and Romney graduated from Brigham Young University in 1971.

For a federal judge to try to impact a presidential race the only way he can is wrong.

Jones knows it, at least one appellate judge knows it and I know it. Now you know it too.

But since he’s a lifetime appointee, unless Jones is impeached, he’ll still serve on the bench.

What we don’t know is why Jones would make such an obvious move. Did he think nobody would notice when the stakes are the presidency? Or was helping Romney win just too compelling a motive for the Reno-based judge?