A hearing has been scheduled for Tuesday at 9 a.m. in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee regarding a motion made in disqualified TN-5 GOP Congressional candidate Robby Starbuck’s lawsuit against Chairman Scott Golden, the Tennessee Republican Party (TRP), and the Tennessee Secretary of State’s office.
The presiding judge is Chief District Judge Waverly Crenshaw, an Obama appointee.
According to the District Court Clerk’s office, the hearing is on the plaintiff’s [Starbuck’s] motion for a temporary restraining order and injunction against Starbuck’s removal from the ballot.
According to the lawsuit filing, Starbuck’s lawsuit is asking the court to declare that the TRP’s transmission of Starbuck’s name as one of the candidates the party did not restore to the TN-5 ballot was “arbitrary, capricious, and/or contrary to law, and therefore void.”
Additionally, it asks for the court to declare that the state’s subsequent disqualification of Starbuck was also “arbitrary, capricious, and/or contrary to law.”
It further asked for an “injunction prohibiting and enjoining Mr. Goins and Mr. Hargett from removing Mr. Starbuck’s name from the ballot for the August 2022 federal primary election for U.S. Representative of Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District.”
Starbuck is also asking the court for an award of damages from Chairman Golden and the TRP, an “award of nominal damages to vindicate Mr. Starbuck’s rights,” and for the defendants to pay for his attorney’s fees.
The Tennessee Star spoke with a legal expert about the case who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
He said, “This lawsuit looks pretty ridiculous on its face and is likely a ‘Hail Mary’ attempt to get around a long-established and legal process that the TRP has commonly used in accordance with its own bylaws and the state code. The plaintiff appears to be hoping that Judge Crenshaw, an Obama appointee, will look down on the TRP bylaws and put him back on the ballot.”
The expert added, “Judges notoriously refuse to get involved in squabbles involving nomination contests, party bylaws, plans – whatever you want to call the governing document that sets the rules for a political party. The prevailing legal view, as least as far as I’ve seen, is that the judicial system prefers for fights over party rules to be decided by the party. Most judges want nothing to do with those battles.”
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Aaron Gulbransen is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected]. Follow Aaron on GETTR, Twitter, and Parler.
Photo “Robby Starbuck” by Robby Starbuck.Â
Sorry Robbie NoBucks, we know who you are now and what you’re about. Please just go away into the night.
Trump really needs to comment on this and shut it all down. It’s tearing the party up and now Dems in Nashville are going to turn out in record numbers because of the Supreme Court leaker.
Trump endorsed Ortagus as a favor to Pompano. He never really cared about her. Now that she’s out, he needs to get off his lazy butt and settle this primary once and for all. Otherwise, the whole redistricting will have been for nothing!