Bob Dunn over at Fort Bend Now is reporting that the 5th Circuit will expedite the GOP appeal in the Tom Delay replacement case. The schedule is as follows.

Ruling late Thursday afternoon, the 5th Circuit agreed to a schedule proposed by BenkiserÂ’s attorneys, by which they would file their opening brief tomorrow, the state DemocratsÂ’ attorneys would file a response by July 21, the GOP would file a reply by July 26 and an appeals court panel of judges will take the case July 31.

The panel of judges will determine on July 31st whether theyÂ’ll hear oral arguments in the case.

That would permit them to rule by the August 4 date that the Texas GOP is claiming it needs to name a replacement -- and to come up for a replacement for THAT candidate if he/she is on the ballot for another office.

UPDATE: The Houston Chronicle, being the local paper of record, contains only a small blurb with significantly less information.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday granted an expedited hearing to the Texas Republican Party on its quest to replace former U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay on the ballot.

An order signed by Judge Fortunato "Pete" Benavides said the court will take up the case on July 31, but did not commit to hearing oral arguments.

Attorneys have until July 26 to file briefs.

The Texas Republican Party is appealing a ruling by U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks that GOP Chair Tina Benkiser cannot declare DeLay ineligible to appear on the ballot and that the Republicans can take no action to replace DeLay. The lawsuit was brought by the Texas Democratic Party.

So much for fully informing the constituents of CD22 about a situation that directly impacts them. And only 9 hours later than the much more informative Fort Bend Now post cited above.

Thank God for Bob Dunn.

Posted by: Greg at 07:12 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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