"[W]e affirm the decision of the trial court that Al Franken received the highest number of votes legally cast and is entitled under Minn. 32 Stat. § 204C.40 (2008) to receive the certificate of election as United States Senator from the State of Minnesota," a unanimous Minnesota Supreme Court just ruled. The decision, coming approximately 9000 years after the Senate election, gives loser Norm Coleman only one more whack at the result-an appeal in federal court. No word yet from the Coleman camp on whether he will seek federal relief, but we expect to hear something once his Republican puppetmasters decide how much longer they're willing to forestall the inevitable in an attempt to prevent a Democratic supermajority in the Senate.

My favorite part of the decision:

Coleman makes the additional argument that the non-uniform application of the statutory standards for absentee voting nevertheless brings this case within the ambit of the United States Supreme Court's decision in Bush v. Gore, 531 U.S. 98 (2000) (per curiam). In Bush, the Court held that the statewide recount of the 2000 presidential election that had been ordered by the Florida Supreme Court violated equal protection. Id. at 103. Coleman argues that, in Minnesota's 2008 United States Senate election, different local election jurisdictions treated similarly situated absentee ballots differently and that the trial court imposed a stricter standard for compliance with absentee voting requirements than did election officials, and that those differences violate equal protection under Bush.

The trial court concluded that Bush is distinguishable in several important respects and, as a result, does not support Coleman‟s equal protection claim. We agree.... In summary, we conclude that Bush v. Gore is not applicable and does not support Coleman's equal protection claim.