[EM] IRV and Brown vs. Smallwood

[Markus Schulze]

Hallo,

in 1915, the Supreme Court of Minnesota declared
the "preferential system" unconstitutional. The
decision ("Brown vs. Smallwood") is here:

http://rangevoting.org/BrownVsmallwood.pdf

The crucial sentence is (page 508):

> We do right in upholding the right of the
> citizen to cast a vote for the candidate of
> his choice unimpaired by second or additional
> choice votes by other voters.

Now, a county judge had to decide whether
Brown vs. Smallwood also applies to IRV.
The judge came to the conclusion that
Brown vs. Smallwood doesn't apply to IRV.
The decision is here:

http://www.fairvotemn.org/sites/fairvotemn.org/files/IRV%20Lawsuit_Hennepin%20Cnty%20Crt%20Opinion%20011309_1.PDF

In my opinion, the decision is very problematic.
The judge judged the methods not by their
properties, but by IRV's underlying heuristic.

Markus Schulze