[UPDATED:] Dispatch blasts Brunner over federal judge's ruling.... without mentioning that the ruling was legally improper

Anyone read today's editorial in the Columbus Dispatch?  It read like a Kevin DeWine press release.  The editorial board today raked Brunner over the coals:

Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner made a serious blunder by failing to give county elections boards the names of new voters whose registration records don't match state and federal data. She should comply with a federal court order to release the information within a week instead of appealing the case to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, as she has said she intends to do.

Apparently, the Dispatch missed that not only did Brunner appeal the decision, but she was right to do so.  Because on Friday (two days before the Dispatch's editorial), the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the federal judge's (Reagan appointee's ruling).

Specifically, the Sixth Circuit found:

• For the second time in this federal case, the trial judge exceeded the bounds of the court's jurisdiction in entering a federal restraining order against Brunner.
• The federal statute that the Ohio Republican Party was citing as its basis of its suit does not provide for a "private right of action."  In other words, the Congress did not intend for private parties, such as the Ohio Republican Party, to sue in federal court to enforce the statute.
• That Brunner, not the Ohio GOP, had a strong likelihood of success, and therefore, the ORP wasn't entitled to a restraining order.
• That Ohio is likely in compliance with the HAVA (the federal Help America Vote Act) (sorry Dispatch editorial board).
• That the trial judge's order actually would have likely caused Brunner to violate the HAVA and another federal election law.
• That Judge Smith's order would likely result in the mistaken purging of completely valid registrations, thus denying people their right to vote given the closeness of the election.
• The "factual basis" of the trial court's order was not any evidence presented to it because none was, but two newspaper articles.  The court found this lack of judicial factfinding before granting a restraining order regarding how Ohio's elections are handled this close to the election rendered the decision  a"shaky" and "unsubstantiated" one.

This is what the Sixth Circuit found on FRIDAY about this trial judge's decision.  And yet, the Dispatch, a news organization, TODAY didn't even know that the decision that they were praising and using to falsely accuse Brunner of partisanship had already been reversed because the trial judge had no jurisidction to hear this matter, the parties had no right to bring this suit, and there was no evidence to support this decision.  And the Dispatch completely failed to mention any of this findings in today's editorial.

In fact, the Sixth Circuit found, contrary to the Dispatch's characterization, that County Board of Elections, independent of Brunner, are able to verify and investigate discrepancies in voter registrations with these databases.

Despite the Dispatch's characterization of Judge Smith's order as "common sense," the federal appeals court found it to be utter lacking of support in both evidence and law.

The Dispatch owes Secretary Brunner a front-page apology for attacking her over a legal decision that wasn't even valid anymore.

And the Dispatch owes its readers an apology for being so misinformed and for misinforming their readers.

[UPDATE]:  Here's what makes the Dispatch's failure to know of the 6th Circuit's decision even more inexcusable.  On Friday, Secretary of State Brunner issued a press release praising the decision.  I'm sure that Brunner's office included the Dispatch on its distribution list.  And yet, there's absolutely no mention of this on the Dispatch's website.  No follow up newsstory, no blog post on its many political blogs.  Nothing.

The US Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has halted another partisan lawsuit
in Ohio.  Under the Help America Vote Act, this verification process is not
and has not been permitted to be used to determine a voter's eligibility.

"However, we have multi-layered, bipartisan systems in place to process and
verify every new voter registration.  Ohioans and the nation can be
confident in our elections system.

"I have personally witnessed the tremendous efforts of Ohio's 88 county
boards of elections to prepare for a successful election with a record voter
turnout.  Ohioans are voting in record numbers and we are already seeing the
successful results of our preparation for November 4, 2008."