NJ High Court Blocks Tea Party's Menendez Recall Effort
TRENTON, NJ (CBS) -- The New Jersey Supreme Court has shot down an effort by members of the Tea Party to recall US Senator Robert Menendez, although their leader insists the fight is far from over.
Justices, in their 4-2 decision, sided with the argument made by Menendez's lawyers that a recall would violate the US Constitution.
Plaintiff Roseann Salanitri insists the Constitution doesn't address recalls, so it's a state issue. But she's not surprised with the ruling and plans to take her fight to Washington.
"We are fully prepared to take this all the way up to the Supreme Court," she said on Thursday, "and we see it as an opportunity to open the doors for recalls for the entire nation, not just for New Jersey."
That planned appeal will take time, of course, so she is also prepared to lead an opposition movement against Menendez's likely re-election effort in 2012.
And Salanitri is ready to recall Menendez's fellow US senator from New Jersey, contending that Frank Lautenberg's record of service mirrors Menendez's -- and she likes neither.
Reported by David Madden, KYW Newsradio 1060.
