It's a longshot, but Al Franken is asking the Minnesota Supreme Court today to provisionally certify him as Senator:
As both sides hurled taunts and accusations Wednesday, lawyers for DFLer Al Franken and Republican Norm Coleman braced for a showdown today in the state's highest court on whether Franken should be seated in the Senate while their courtroom election fight continues.
Franken attorney Marc Elias called the recount trial -- Coleman's legal challenge of Franken's 225-vote lead in the certified recount results -- "a shrinking case" and said the law demands that the Democrat be seated in the meantime to give Minnesota the two senators it deserves.
At 9 (CST) this morning, the Minnesota Supreme Court will hear Franken's motion to be granted a provisional certificate of election.
Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a Republican, and Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, a Democrat, have declined to sign an election certificate because state law says none can be issued before the legal battle ends.
Elias seemed to suggest Wednesday that federal law trumps state law in this regard, although he added that he thinks state law is on their side as well.
"The governor and the secretary of state have failed to meet their obligations under federal law, we believe they've failed to meet them under state law, and ... we will put that to the court," he said.
Update from the hearing:
Members of Minnesota’s Supreme Court questioned whether they can force the state to temporarily let Democrat Al Franken serve in the U.S. Senate while Republican Norm Coleman’s challenges an election recount in court.
Franken’s lawyer, Marc Elias, urged the state’s highest court during arguments today in St. Paul not to leave one of the state’s two Senate seats empty while “the nation faces questions of war and peace.”
“I see by the newspapers that a stimulus package may be decided by one vote,” Elias told the court. ... Several justices questioned whether state law allows an election certificate to be issued on a temporary basis. In addition, Justice Paul Anderson asked whether issuing a temporary certificate to Franken, and letting him be sworn in as a senator, would revoke the state’s power to later declare Coleman the winner of the race.
“If the Senate seats someone, would Minnesota then be denied authority” to declare a final winner, Anderson asked. -Bloomberg
.jpg)