User:Rwnemanich/sandbox

Robert (Bob) William Nemanich, (born March 24, 1957), is an American political activist, who served as a Democratic Party Presidential Elector from the State of Colorado in the General Election. He became a Hamilton Elector joining with Micheal Baca and Polly Baca (no relation) both Colorado Electors and Bret Chiafalo of the State of Washington in an effort to stop Donald J Trump’s election in the Electoral College. Polly Baca and Robert Nemanich initiated court action when on December 5th, 2016 in Denver’s Federal Circuit Court in seeking a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) regarding the enforcement of Colorado’s Revised Statute C.R.S. § 1-4-304 which legally bound Electors votes to a presidential candidate who won the popular vote in the state.

This civil action beckoned the highly partisan Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams-Republican to oppressively react. He publicly stated that Baca & Nemanich's court filing was “an illegal conspiracy to subvert the will of Colorado’s voters” further characterizing the effort as; “odious and evil.”. The legal fight would eventually entail a series of state and federal court hearings which would lead to the Supreme Court of the United States a case to be heard late April 2020. The case became known as the Colorado Department of State v Baca, Baca, and Nemanich was consolidated with Chiafalo, Guerra and John v Washington by the Supreme Court for an expected historical decision of whether Electors are free to vote their own conscience.

The question of “Are these electors free to vote for whomever they wish? The simple answer is yes”, was rhetorically posed by Mitch McConnell in a book; he is credited writing the introduction titled Securing Democracy; Why we have the Electoral College, (author Gary L Gregg), The reference was the first sentence in Baca and Nemanich’s TRO motion. McConnell went on to write: “Though many states technically require them to vote as they have pledged, some do not have penalties attached to that mandate, and it is not quite clear that these requirements if tested, could meet constitutional muster.”

Long Road to the Supreme Court

In 2017, Polly Baca and Robert Nemanich through their attorneys' Jason Wesoky, and Furman Professor of Law, [Lessig], of Harvard Law School with his Equal Citizens Movement , filed a  new lawsuit, alleging Wayne Williams as Colorado’s Secretary of State “under color of state law, threatened and intimidated the plaintiff’s in the exercise of their federally protected rights as presidential Electors” thereby seeking to overturn C.R.S. § 1-4-304. On September 2017, Micheal Baca joined their lawsuit following the Attorney General of Colorado, Cynthia Coffman-Republican decision  not to pursue criminal charges against Micheal Baca. Six months later, on April 2018, Justice Wiley Daniels the original judge in Baca and Nemanich filing dismissed the case; "In conclusion, Plaintiffs ask this Court to strike down Colorado’s elector statute that codifies the historical understanding and longstanding practice of binding electors to the People’s vote, and to sanction a new system that would render the People’s vote merely advisory. I reject this invitation, finding not only that Plaintiffs lack standing but that their claims fail to state a claim upon which relief can be granted." ”.

Baca, Baca & Nemanich appealed to the Tenth District Court of Appeals where subsequently they received a favorable ruling. On August 20, 2019 the court ruled in 2-1 decision Micheal Baca’s favor and struck down (C.R.S. § 1-4-304) as unconstitutional. The Court affirmed the lower court's ruling that Polly Baca and Bob Nemanich claim’s lacked standing since they were not institutionally harmed as they eventually complied with the unconstitutional demands of Colorado’s State Circuit Court ruling and the Secretary of State in voting for Hillary Clinton. The majority’s 114 page ruling Judges Jerome Holmes and Carolyn McHugh overturned Judge Daniels, (Mary Beck Briscoe dissenting). Judge McHugh wrote the opinion:

[page 111-114] ''“Mr. Baca and the amicus briefs filed in support of his position also cite numerous contemporaneous statements showing that the framers and early Congressmen (including those involved in passing the Twelfth Amendment) believed presidential electors were to act with discretion...While it is true that the states now almost uniformly require electors to pledge their votes to the winners of the popular election, that does not speak to the states’ ability to enforce those pledges after voting has begun by removing the elector and nullifying his vote.''

''Contemporaneous authoritative sources—mainly in the form of the Federalist Papers and Justice Story’s Commentaries—support our reading of the Constitution as providing the electors the discretion to vote for the presidential candidate of their choice. They therefore support our conclusion that the Constitution does not grant to the states the power to remove electors who vote independently, despite the electors’ pledge to cast their votes for the winners of the popular election. Because voting as an elector is a federal function, Burroughs, 290 U.S at 544,''

''(The Act seeks to protect the purity of presidential and vice-presidential elections; it is confined to situations which are beyond the power of a state to deal with adequately, if at all, and neither in purpose nor in effect does it interfere with the power of a state, under § 1, Art. II of the Constitution, to appoint the electors or with the manner in which their appointment shall be made),. similar to the “function of a state Legislature in ratifying a proposed amendment to the federal Constitution,. . . it transcends any limitations sought to be imposed by the people of a state.” Leser, 258 U.S. at 137….(“But the function of a state legislature in ratifying a proposed amendment to the Federal Constitution, like the function of Congress in proposing the amendment, is a federal function derived from the Federal Constitution; and it transcends any limitations sought to be imposed by the people of a State.”''

The State of Colorado immediately sought an appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States in what became known as; Colorado Department of State v Baca et all. On January 17, 2020, the Supreme accepted the case consolidating it with the Chiafalo et al v Washington. The Supreme Court receiving their case(s) completed Baca and Nemanich's original plan conceived on November 26, 2016 in a meeting of four Electors in Polly Baca’s apartment accessing "how they might reach out to other national electors across the country as part of a plan to keep Trump from the Oval Office...A lawyer who was present at Saturday’s Denver meeting— he didn’t want his name published because he is not yet officially working with the electors and because of legal strategy— said the U.S Supreme Court has left open the question of whether it is constitutional to enforce state law to bind electors to whoever won a state.'We believe it is not, under Article II and the 12th Amendment and how it is discussed by Hamilton in the federalist papers,” the lawyer said'"

Professional Background

Currently, Nemanich is involved in high school discipline and high school athletics for a low-income majority-minority public school in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He previously was as a Teaching Math Fellow working in their student intervention programs. Nemanich.is also a well-known local Democratic Party activist in El Paso County,since 2009 he often has been a party official serving on both its county and Colorado Democratic Party's executive and central committees and a long standing precinct chairperson. “His fellow Democratic activists know him as a bit of an outsider, but someone who runs precincts well and is a watchdog for voting rights .”

Previously, Nemanich’s career was in the executive recruiter field where he worked on senior management positions for a variety of industries either as a self-employed consultant or working for boutique, industry-centered headhunting firm’s. He also was a serial entrepreneur during the ‘90's starting and operating consulting firms in the technology and pharmaceutical research. He began his career working for staff supplementation and recruiting firms in the Chicago IT and software market eventually achieving a position as a senior corporate manager for Manpower International when it was broadening to Manpower Professional.

Early Years

Born in Waukegan,Illinois, the oldest of seven children to William James Nemanich (b. 1927) and Mary Lou Nemanich (1930-2008), in a devout Catholic family. William was a successful attorney in Lake_County,_Illinois the founding partner of Morrison and Nemanich LTD. Robert Nemanich graduated from high school in 1975 with honors from Carmel High School of Mundelein,Illinois.. Nemanich earned two varsity letters in golf when in his senior year during the 1974-75 season he tied for first medalist in the North Suburbs IHSA golf tournament, leading his team for a win. over his hometown rival Waukegan High School led by the future PGA golfer David_Ogrin.

Indiana University

Nemanich went to Indiana University-Bloomington initially competing for the college golf team. Due to a series of major knee injuries that pursuit was cut short. He graduated with a Bachelor’s in Political Science (1984) and minoring in economics and communications. Later in 2000, Nemanich as an alumnus and friend of Coach Bob Knight got involved in Knight’s firing by Indiana University. Nemanich published an extensive blog reporting of a secret serial meeting’s conducted by Myles Brand with IU’s Board of Trustees an apparent violation of the state’s open meeting statutes. Subsequently he became the first plaintiff of what became known as the 46 Fans lawsuit. The Indiana Court of Appeals Court ruled the meetings were illegal. Six years after the Knight firing the suit went to the Supreme_Court_of_Indiana declined to hear the appeal since there was no specific provision regarding serial meetings in Indiana;s State laws. The following week the Indiana legislature passed and amendment to IC 5-14-1.5-3.1 Serial meetings outlawing the practice.

Personal

In June 1986, he married Sue Ann Shipton, (b 1960, Waukegan) of La Grange Park, Illinois and Hinsdale Illinois, at the Unitarian Church of Hinsdale. They have two children, Anna Marie (b 1988) and James Robert (b 1991), and have been married for over thirty-three years. In 2004, Nemanich ran for a seat on the Racine_Unified_School_District (Wisconsin). He made it through the first round but finished sixth for three seats in the final round. In 2005 the family moved to Colorado Springs CO because of a doctor’s recommendation to remedy a long-term health ailment.

In Colorado Springs, CO, Nemanich became involved with the El Paso County Democratic Party helping to lead a progressive movement that was previously ineffective. El Paso County was considered one of the most conservative voting areas in the country where Democratic candidates had only won one election in over thirty years when in 2002, Michael Merrifield secured a state representative seat. In 2008 Nemanich was a volunteer leader in the Obama Presidential Campaign. Surprisingly took the majority of delegates in both El Paso County and Colorado was unsettling to many of the long term regulars in the local and state party.a result of a new wave of progressive activists brought into the party from the Obama Campaign. Eight years later the Bernie_Sanders_2016_presidential_campaign received a similar surge of democratic progressives among the local Democrats surprising the Hillary Clinton campaign. The net effect was the capturing two State Representative seats, sustaining a Senate seat and two city council members.. During this era Nemanich became known as one of Colorado Springs Independent’s top op-ed writers. "'Bob' Nemanich gives nothing away in his appearance. He dresses in slacks, a collared shirt and a sweater vest. He has a large frame, thick silvery hair and blue eyes so round and expressive they make the rest of his features look like afterthoughts. Book-cover intuition could peg him a Bill O'Reilly lapdog as easily as a Barack Obama enthusiast.But just wait till he opens his mouth. 'I'm a wild, progressive liberal in town,' he says, his tone deliberately prideful. 'And I'm knowledgeable, so I'm dangerous.'"