This is a bit dated in blog-time, but hey, the snowy east coast is reason enough to pause, reflect, and dig back into things that happened weeks ago. Someone intimately involved with the Prop 8 case happening out in San Francisco makes the case that Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer's dissent on the question of whether that trial should have been broadcast marks the very first time in the history of the United States Supreme Court that an online organizing action was specifically cited in a high court opinion. Here's Breyer:

The court initially relied on a provision in the United States Code that permits District Courts to prescribe rules “without public notice and opportunity for comment” “[i]f the pre- scribing court determines that there is an immediate need for a rule,” and if the court “promptly thereafter afford[s] such notice and opportunity for comment,” [bunch of legal stuff, yadda, yadda.] Then, on December 31, the court revised its public notice to ask for comments directly. By January 8, 2010, the court had received 138,574 comments, all but 32 transmitting the proceedings.

Those 138,574 comments, give or take, came mostly as the result of an organizing push that groups like the Courage Campaign, based in California, took part in -- which goes to explain in part why the comments that poured in ran 4000-to-1 in favor of broadcast the marriage trial's proceedings, which the Supreme Court came down somewhat more closely, at 4-to-5. Interesting that Breyer didn't cite the source of the Hussein-ian numbers. (Interesting too, is that pro-same-sex marriage backers' success in organizing here is somewhat the opposite of the dynamic during the Prop 8 battle itself, where the advocates of the proposition out hustled, out organized and messaged those folks who wanted to ban same-sex marriage in California.) But it does mark some sort of moment in time that a people-powered political push organized almost entirely online makes its way into an argument in the highest court in the land.

The gauntlet has been thrown. Has your online political action reached the status of inclusion in a Supreme Court opinion, or does this deserve the honor -- the historic honor -- of being deemed the first time digital politics on a mass scale has become a point of argumentation for the nine in black? By all means, let us know.

Credit: Re-Elect Congressman Kucinich Committee

An email from Ohio Democrat Dennis Kucinich promoting his candidacy in a Firedoglake online contest is getting attention in some quarters for the fact that Kucinich lays out in black and white pixels that he'll vote in Congress against any health care reform measure that doesn't include a public option. The Senate bill, of course, doesn't have a public plan in it, and Kucinich's eventual support for a compromise legislative vehicle had been something of an open question.

But aside from the legislative particulars, we're early enough in the evolution of the political blog universe that it's still eye catching to see a sitting congressperson go after a blog endorsement like this, and it points to the success that Firedoglake has had in establishing itself not only as a political blog, but as a sort of blog/activist-force hybrid that few, if any, other political blogs on the left have duplicated. Whatever advocacy might that might be is something Kucinich could use in his corner; the long-time member of Congress faced his toughest race yet in 2008, though his Ohio district is fairly solidly Democrat territory.

What's FDL promising? The top three winners of its "Fire Dogs" contest gets added to FDL Action PAC's ActBlue fundraising drive; in the last quarter of 2008, ActBlue listed Firedoglake as its fourth largest aggregator of donations, pulling in $150,000 in that sleepy quarter. Beyond fundraising promises, FDL says that they will buy voter lists for the districts of their winning candidates, and then supply the army that it will take to turn those lists into phone calls, emails, and general promotion of the successful Fire Dog. "Members of the FDL community," reads the contest's rules, "will call voters in these districts to identify and persuade constituent support, encourage voter registration and recruit volunteers."

In addition to a taking a stand against health care reform that lacks a public option, FDL is encouraging participants in the contest to judge the congress-testants on whether they've pledged to cut off funding for the Iraq war, as well as their vote on one particular June supplemental bill. (The correct vote was a "no.")

Kucinich hit his email list yesterday with a note that read this: "Popular progressive blog, Firedoglake (FDL), has launched a new poll to identify three 'Fire Dogs' in Congress." He went on: "We are currently 2nd in the poll out of all the Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives. I need your help in getting us into 1st place." First, at the moment, is Orlando Rep. Alan Grayson. Kucinich followed up with a gentle nudge via email earlier today, writing to supporters that "You can make a difference, where being successful is a must."

Success might be a must, but will Kucinich be a success? We'll see. Voting ends tonight at midnight, east coast time, and the winners will be announced tomorrow.

Building a Better Bully Pulpit; We the People 2.0; We Have the Tools to Finally Pop the White House Bubble; Government is Cool Again; Japan's Online Politics (or Lack Thereof); Ideas for Change, and a Road Map; and a good deal more.