Nader's $80,000 Court Battle

Last week, Ralph Nader's ongoing court battle with a law firm that challenged his 2004 Ballot Petition in Pennsylvannia heated up again. The case began back in 2004 when Pennsylvannia Democrats filed a lawsuit challenging the authenticity of many signatures on the petition to get Nader on the ballot. Democrats, who were worried that Nader would "steal" votes from John Kerry, noted that "Mickey Mouse" and "Fred Flintstone" were among the many dubious signatures collected on the Nader Petition. Nader lost the case and the Pennsylvannia Supreme Court ordered that he pay $81,000 in legal fees to the law firm. However, in typical 'Ralph Nader' fashion, he launched an investigation which found that three of the justices had recieved contributions from the law firm and that two more had previous connections with the firm. Consequently, Nader appealed to a Washington D.C. court, claiming that the justices acted unethically and that he should not have to pay the legal fees. The law firm filed a response this past week admitting that the allegations are true, but claims that no wrong was committed. For further developments, the ongoing case is Serody v Nader, 2007 CA 003385F, D.C. Superior Court.