Menton Murray, Jr., The Judge Who Can't Decide the Hasse vs Morris "Resignation" Case

Judge Menton Murray, Jr.

It would be my luck to be caught behind Judge Menton Murray, Jr. in line at McDonald's with the judge staring at the Dollar Menu offerings.

"What do they put in a McDouble?" I can hear the judge asking.

"Hey, I heard you have a new burger with jalapenos! How much are those?  Is it too late to order from the breakfast menu?"

Judge Murray, using two different district court rooms for hearings, has still not decided if Frank Morris resigned as Cameron County Republican Chair.

The Initially Lawyerless Tad Hasse

The first Hasse vs. Morris hearing started with a Murray soliloquy about whether or not he had jurisdiction.  He almost wished outloud someone would tell him he didn't, but even Morris' $7,500 attorney, Paul L. Fort, Jr., acknowledged he did.  It ended with Murray requesting briefs from both sides.  It was pretty apparent Murray hadn't read either brief filed in the first hearing.

In the second Hasse vs. Morris hearing, Judge Murray got down to substance.  Yes, there had been not one, but two resignations by Morris May 14.  The first, sent at 12:36 PM, was thorough and permanent, calling for the "new chair" to pick up all the party documents "within 30 days."  Morris drew from his memory bank the words of the slain civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, saying he felt he "was free at last."

The Narcoleptic Frank Morris

11 hours later, at 11:59 PM, Morris, already tiring of this newfound freedom, submitted a second email to Party Secretary Ida Stacey and others, limiting his resignation to his then current term.

Judge Menton Murray, Jr. chewed on the evidence presented, comparing it to the Texas Election Code, finding that neither resignation met the standard as both were "unsigned."

Of course, electronic mail or e-mail, works somewhat differently from the written communication of the pencil and ink and the horse and buggy eras. As Wikipedia explains:   Today's email systems are based on a store-and-forward model. Email servers accept, forward, deliver, and store messages. Neither the users nor their computers are required to be online simultaneously; they need connect only briefly, typically to a mail server, for as long as it takes to send or receive messages. Historically, the term electronic mail was used generically for any electronic document transmission.

Millions of emails are acknowledged, accepted daily without an actual signature.

But, there is a way to actually "sign" an email. Outlook offered such a digital signature in 2007:  

Digitally sign all messages

1. On the Tools menu on the Outlook Mail view, click Trust Center to open the Trust Center dialog box, and at the far left of the dialog box, click E-mail Security.
2. Under Encrypted e-mail, select the Add digital signature to outgoing messages check box.
3. If available, you can select one of the following options:
• If you want recipients who don't have S/MIME security to be able to read the message, select the Send clear text signed message when sending signed messagescheck box. This check box is selected by default.
• To verify that your digital signature is being validated by recipients and to request confirmation that the message was received unaltered, as well as notification telling you who opened the message and when it was opened, select the Request S/MIME receipt for all S/MIME signed messages check box. When you send a message with an S/MIME return receipt request, this verification information is returned as a message sent to your Inbox.
4. To change additional settings, such as choosing a specific certificate to use, clickSettings.
5. Click OK twice.

We look forward to Judge Murray's next, and hopefully, final ruling.