1988 Laurieir v. Talossa (UC)

  

Din el Cort Pü Inalt
DANIHEL LAURIEIR
Plaintiff
v.
GOVERNMENT OF TALOSSA
Defendant
Decided
20 September 1988/IX
Brief of the ruling
{{{ruling}}}
Opinion of the Court delivered by
Justice Metáiriâ, joined by Justice Buffone
joined by Justice Murphy delivered a dissenting opinion. Records of this case come from Madison, R. Ben, The History of the Kingdom of Talossa, Abbavilla, 1992.

Background

In the election of August 15, 1988/IX, the Progressive Conservative Party received 78.57% of the vote, with the Talossan National Party receiving 21.43%. However, a minority of voters did not vote for any party and tore up their ballots instead. Danihel Laurieir's contention was that a quarter of the Cosâ seats should be left empty to 'represent' those abstaining voters.

Ruling

Madison's The History of the Kingdom of Talossa (1992) records the ruling of Justice Metáiriâ and Justice Buffone as follows:

[...] based on all tradition, past election[s] both in Talossa without, and upon interpretation of the Consitituiun, we have decided that Non-Voting is NOT considered a vote for any purpose. Though it is clear to this Cort that 'Non-Votes' were a sign of disapproval of the parties that ran. (Madison 1992, p. 220)

Dissent

Madison's The History of the Kingdom of Talossa records the dissent made by Justice Murphy (a good while later than the majority ruling), as follows:

We are not Talossans so that there will always be a government. Politics are the lifeblood of Talossa, but who cares if there is a government? The Cosâ is a forum, and it is a good forum. But it is not immutable, and were it to become unwieldy or actually a hindrance to political dialogue, then to hell with it. In Talossa our politics will live on whether or not the government does--and perhaps it would be more vigorous if having a government weren't such a central concern. (Madison 1992, p. 234)