Kuhn v. Beede

The opinion of the majority is an exercise in textual analysis which pays little heed to the fact that it is disenfranchising 202 voters. It cites the text of statutes and court decisions 40 to 50 years old or more as if they were graven on stone. The opinion says nothing about the “spirit of the law” which was held by the same Justices only four weeks ago [Olson v. Thompson, 248 N.W.2d 347 (N.D.1976)] to justify wholesale disregard of mandatory statutes. In the opinion of four weeks ago they said, at four different places, that statutes could be disregarded because they required only “idle…