The Living Room Times

The Minnesota Supreme Court unanimously upheld a lower court ruling in the hotly contested Senate race between Democrat and comedian Al Franken and his Republican opponent Norm Coleman.

Their ruling rejected claims by the challenger that inconsistent election practices and flawed decisions by lower courts had cost him the election.

“Al Franken received the highest number of votes legally cast and is entitled [under Minnesota law] to receive the certificate of election as United States Senator from the State of Minnesota,” the court wrote.

Franken would give Democrats in the Senate a potential 60-seat, filibuster-proof super majority.

UPDATE BY BRENDAN: Of course, a “filibuster-proof” majority doesn’t necessarily mean as much as is popularly supposed, given that the Senate is made up of 100 mini-presidents (in their own minds, anyway) who generally cannot be “whipped” into towing the party line to the same extent that’s possible with House members. The difference between 59 senators and 60 senators is not nearly as significant as, say, the difference between or 49 and 50 (if you’ve got the vice president) or 50 and 51 (if you don’t), when the speakership, chairmanships, and basic control of the chamber’s procedures are at stake.

Nevertheless, Franken’s now-declared victory — which has been an inevitability for some months; it’s pretty clearly been a matter of how and when, not if, he’d be seated — will give the Democrats one additional reliable vote on cap-and-trade, health care, and various other key initiatives. His vote isn’t magical, but it is important.

Anyway, Nate Silver has an analysis of what comes next. The big questions are: 1) Will ex-Senator Coleman now concede? 2) If he doesn’t, will Governor Pawlenty nevertheless certify Senator-elect Franken as the winner? 3) If he doesn’t, will the Senate Democrats try to seat Franken anyway? And 4) If the Dems try that, will it work?

UPDATE 2 BY DAVID K:  Coleman has conceded.