The Minnesota Democrat’s swearing-in marked the end of an eight-month political and legal struggle and drew thunderous applause and a standing ovation in the Senate chamber. His presence gives Democrats 60 votes, enough to thwart possible Republican filibusters.

Vice President Joe Biden administered Franken’s oath, slapping the former Saturday Night Live performer on the back, then embracing him in a full hug. Former Vice President Walter Mondale, a Minnesota native, accompanied Franken. Franken was introduced by fellow Minnesotan and Democrat Sen. Amy Klobuchar.

“I think it was Al who told me that the third year of his campaign would be the best,” Klobuchar said. “He was right.”

Franken arrives in the Senate more than eight months after Election Day. Last week the Minnesota Supreme Court unanimously ruled in Franken’s favor after a protracted recount and his opponent, former Republican Sen. Norm Coleman, conceded.

In the usually staid Senate, there were plenty of signs something unusual was afoot. The Senate Gallery, rarely full even with dozens of summer tours, was packed with onlookers. After Franken took the oath of the Senate, the gallery erupted in an unusual and lengthy applause that continued for several minutes.

Before the swearing in, Franken learned one truism of the Senate: nothing ever runs quite on time. Several senators read lengthy remarks from a Homeland Security bill as anticipation built for Franken’s arrival. Franni Franken, the candidate’s wife, smiled broadly and seemed to shift nervously in her seat.

Then, about 15 minutes later than had been scheduled, Klobuchar began her introduction. She said Franken would be a champion of average Minnesotans and played up his middle-class bona fides.

“He’s demonstrated to Minnesotans that he takes his new job seriously,” she said.

She added that he carried, “the same passion as Paul Wellstone,” who was famous for his populist roots. Franken took the oath on a Bible that belonged to the family of the late Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn.

Franken exchanged hugs with most of his Democratic colleagues and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent.

He acknowledged a section of the Senate Gallery that included Franken’s wife, Franni. Franken waved to his wife and children while behind him his friend Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, gestured with his hands to raise the roof, prompting a fresh burst of cheers.

The hullabaloo that accompanied Franken’s swearing in was in some ways a contrast with the image the former comedian is trying to project as a serious-minded senator. Since moving back to Minnesota in 2005, Franken has sought to tone down his image as an irreverent performer and satirist casting himself as workhorse and policy wonk.

Franken said in an interview with The Associated Press on Monday that while he is still garnering attention for his career as a comic, he expects the publicity to die down once he is able to establish himself in the Senate.

“I think they’ll get to used to the idea that I’m a senator, that I’ve kind of changed careers,” Franken said. “I just don’t think it will take that long. They’ll see what I do and what I say. Mainly I’m going to put my head down and get to work.”

Democrats said Franken will assume seats on the Senate Select Committee on Aging, the Committee on Indian Affairs, the Judiciary Committee and the Committee on Health Education Labor and Pensions. Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Tuesday Franken will not join the HELP committee until after the current health care bill goes through budget mark up.

Franken’s most pressing business will be the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. He told the AP Monday that he would like to serve as a “people’s proxy” on the committee.

The high court rejected a legal challenge from Republican Norm Coleman, whose options for regaining the Senate seat are dwindling.

Justices said Franken is entitled to the election certificate he needs to assume office. With Franken and the usual backing of two independents, Democrats will have a big enough majority to overcome Republican filibusters.

Coleman hasn’t ruled out seeking federal court intervention.

Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, said the earliest Franken would be seated is next week because the Senate is out of session for the July 4 holiday.

Franken, a former Saturday Night Live star making the leap from life as a left-wing author and radio talker to the Senate, planned a news conference later Tuesday and didn’t immediately comment.

Coleman’s campaign didn’t immediately return a call for comment. Nor did Gov. Tim Pawlenty, whose signature is required on the election certificate Franken needs to be seated.

Pawlenty, a Republican, has said he would sign the certificate if ordered to do so by the court. The court’s ruling stopped short of explicitly ordering the governor to sign the document, saying only that Franken was “entitled” to it.

Coleman’s appeal hinged largely on whether thousands of absentee votes had been unfairly rejected by local election officials around the state.

The unanimous court wrote that “because the legislature established absentee voting as an optional method of voting, voters choosing to use that method are required to comply with the statutory provisions.”

They went on to say that “because strict compliance with the statutory requirements for absentee voting is, and always has been required, there is no basis on which voters could have reasonably believed that anything less than strict compliance would suffice.”

The court said it would hear arguments on Franken’s petition to get a certificate before the conclusion of a lawsuit by Republican Norm Coleman, but not until Feb. 5. The court order also granted Coleman’s request to intervene in the case, which names Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Secretary of State Mark Ritchie as defendants.

The development extends an already lengthy fight over the last undecided Senate seat from the 2008 election.

Also, Coleman proposed a schedule for the trial on his lawsuit disputing the recount results, which showed him 225 votes behind Franken. His recommendations would push the trial well into February and probably beyond.

In a filing, Coleman recommended conducting the trial in stages. He said the case should proceed to the next step only if he gains “a sufficient number of votes” in the prior stage. A spokesman for Franken said he will submit his own, shorter timeline on Thursday.

The decision rests with three district judges appointed to hear the case.

Franken wants to take office before that lawsuit is resolved, but the governor and secretary of state say state law bars them from issuing an election certificate before then. Franken’s petition aims to force the officials to act without waiting for Coleman’s lawsuit to play out.

Coleman’s legal team said they were pleased by the court’s decision not to rush the Franken request.

“The Supreme Court’s scheduling order has thrown cold water on the Franken campaign’s latest power grab,” they said in a written statement.

On the election lawsuit, Coleman attorney Tony Trimble said the campaign already is examining documents and holding depositions for witnesses who may be called during the trial.

Under Coleman’s proposal, the court would take up disputed absentee ballots first. Both sides claim in court filings that hundreds of absentee ballots were wrongly excluded. They want the exterior of the sealed ballots examined for voter compliance with state law and have incorrectly rejected ballots opened and counted.

A later stage in Coleman’s plan would address ballots from Minneapolis that election officials say went missing. The board that oversaw the recount decided to use Election Day machine tallies for that precinct to account for the lost ballots.

Other issues for later consideration include deliberation over ballots with questionable voter intent and a probe into Coleman’s argument that some voters had more than one ballot counted.

On the last issue, a group of Coleman supporters said Wednesday they would file legal papers to intervene in the case. They contend that as many as 150 ballots in firmly Democratic Minneapolis precincts were double-counted.

“If even one vote is counted twice, that dilutes and disenfranchises millions of other people whose votes were counted only once,” said Tony Sutton, a longtime Republican Party leader.

The group didn’t provide physical evidence to support their allegations, which mirror those being made in Coleman’s lawsuit. They say that some duplicate ballots made to replace ballots that couldn’t be fed through tabulating machines weren’t properly marked, making it impossible to link the originals and duplicates. In some cases they say both were counted.

Recount tallies in some precincts exceeded the number of votes picked up by the machines on Nov. 4. But not all election officials have released the polling place sign-in rosters that are a more accurate measure of the number of voters.

It could be impossible to trace original ballots that weren’t marked to align with a duplicate, as state law requires. The group’s attorney, Doug Seaton, said it’s too soon to say what a possible remedy would be.

In letters the campaign sent to Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Democratic Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, Franken’s lawyers argued that a seven-day waiting period for issuing the certificate after an election has passed and he should get the signed certificate. But the state officials said their hands were tied by state law and they could not act.

Franken led Republican Norm Coleman by 225 votes after a statewide recount that was completed Jan. 5.

Coleman is suing over the result, claiming there were irregularities on Election Day and during the recount.

Minnesota law prevents officials from issuing an election certificate until legal matters are resolved. But Franken’s legal team argues that federal election law entitles Franken to receive the certificate before the lawsuit is settled.

“The people of Minnesota are down a senator in the U.S. Senate. This is an opportunity for Governor Pawlenty and Secretary Ritchie to ensure the interests of all Minnesotans are represented in Washington,” Franken lawyer Marc Elias told reporters in a conference call. He didn’t rule out a lawsuit.

In a statement, Ritchie said state law requires him and the governor to turn down Franken’s request.

“Minnesota law is very clear on when a certificate of election can be issued. Neither the governor nor I may sign a certificate of election in the U.S. Senate race until all election contests have reached a final determination,” Ritchie’s statement read.

The statement didn’t specifically address Franken’s argument that federal law supercedes the state law.

Pawlenty echoed Ritchie, saying it is clear the law won’t allow him to issue a certificate while the race is being contested in court.

Coleman campaign manager Cullen Sheehan dismissed the move as a power play meant to get around Franken’s need to defend the election outcome in court.

“He can’t and won’t be seated in a seat he didn’t win, so he is trying this underhanded attempt to blatantly ignore the will of Minnesotans and the laws of the state,” Sheehan said.

Franken’s campaign was due to file a response to Coleman’s lawsuit later Monday. Elias characterized the Coleman action as “riddled with errors that are fatal to much if not all of the claims made in the petition.”

By law, a trial on the lawsuit must start within three weeks of its filing, which occurred last Tuesday. It will be heard by a three-judge panel that has not yet been named.

Republican Norm Coleman filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging Democrat Al Franken’s apparent recount victory, likely keeping one of Minnesota’s two U.S. Senate seats unoccupied for weeks or even months.

It promises to reopen many of the disputes that arose during the recount, and to raise new questions about the conduct of the election and the counting of ballots.

Coleman acknowledged a desire among some Minnesotans to move on, but said a larger principle than expediency is at stake.

“We are filing this contest to make absolutely sure every valid vote was counted and no one’s was counted more than anyone else’s,” he said at a Capitol news conference filled with cheering supporters.

“Democracy is not a machine,” Coleman said. “Sometimes it’s messy and inconvenient, and reaching the best conclusion is never quick because speed is not the first objective, fairness is.”

The lawsuit followed a state board’s determination a day earlier that Franken captured 225 more votes in the November election. But state law prevents officials from issuing an election certificate until legal matters are resolved. Franken did not participate Tuesday when new U.S. senators took the oath of office in Washington.

Coleman attorney Fritz Knaak estimated the lawsuit could take at least two months to resolve.

Franken attorney Marc Elias called the lawsuit “essentially the same thin gruel, warmed-over leftovers from meals we’ve all been served over the last few weeks.”

He said Coleman has the right to sue, but that doesn’t mean his claims have merit, and he was confident Franken would prevail.

Elias refused to say whether the campaign believes the former “Saturday Night Live” personality should be seated while the election challenge is pending.

Franken e-mailed supporters Tuesday seeking donations to carry on the legal fight, just as Coleman did a day earlier.

Coleman, whose term expired Saturday, led Franken by 215 votes in the Nov. 4 count but that advantage flipped during a prolonged recount.

The critical task of picking a three-judge panel to hear the lawsuit won’t be made by the Supreme Court’s chief justice, Eric Magnuson, according to a court spokesman. Magnuson is delegating the decision to Justice Alan Page, who has the most seniority. Magnuson didn’t give a reason for his recusal, but he served on the state board that determined Franken got more votes than Coleman.

Page has been on the court since his 1992 election in a nonpartisan race. He has been mentioned before as a possible Democratic candidate for political office.

A trial is supposed to commence within three weeks of the case being filed.

In going to court, Coleman has three big challenges: raising money to pay escalating legal bills, proving the election was flawed and managing the public’s desire to have the race over.

“They definitely have an uphill fight on their hands,” said Guy-Uriel Charles, a professor of election and constitutional law at the University of Minnesota. “Their legal theory will have to overcome a burden of proof, and then they have to find enough votes to overcome Franken’s lead.”

That could prove difficult, since any bloc of new votes would almost surely include some for Franken.

A lawsuit gives both sides options they lacked during the recount, such as accessing voter rolls, inspecting machines and introducing testimony from election workers.

Coleman’s filing includes some of the points his lawyers have been making for weeks. It centers mainly around claims that hundreds of rejected absentee ballots from Republican-leaning areas should have been part of the recount, that some ballots in Democratic territory were counted twice and that election officials were wrong to use machine tallies for a Minneapolis precinct where ballots went missing.

But there are new angles, too.

The lawsuit alleges that the Canvassing Board made mistakes when determining voter intent on challenged ballots, that ineligible voters cast ballots and that some absentee ballots were erroneously opened early, raising chain-of-custody concerns.

Chief Justice Eric Magnuson of the Minnesota Supreme Court, an appointee of Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty, is charged with selecting a three-judge panel to hear the case. A trial is supposed to commence within three weeks of Magnuson appointing the panel.

Coleman was asked at his news conference if he was certain he’d win his legal challenge.

“I can’t say I’m 100 percent confident,” he said. “I don’t know what the outcome will be. It was a lot closer than I thought it would be.”

(Minneapolis, Minnesota) No longer a U.S. senator, Republican Norm Coleman was headed to court Tuesday, seeking to overturn a state board’s certification that Democrat Al Franken won the U.S. Senate recount.

Coleman’s lawyers had promised a legal challenge a day earlier, arguing that some ballots were mishandled and others were wrongly excluded from the recount. Coleman scheduled an afternoon news conference at the State Capitol in St. Paul to discuss his next steps.

Minnesota law prohibits final certification of a winner in the face of such a lawsuit, meaning the race could remain in limbo for several more months.

Franken declared victory Monday, but a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said in Washington the former “Saturday Night Live” personality would not be sworn in with new senators Tuesday.

Franken spokeswoman Jess McIntosh declined Tuesday to reveal if he was in Washington or what he would do during a legal challenge.

Minnesota’s Canvassing Board certified Monday that Franken won 225 more votes than Coleman, out of almost 3 million cast.

“I am proud to stand before you as the next senator from Minnesota,” Franken told reporters outside his downtown condominium.

The Canvassing Board’s certification of the recount results started a seven-day clock for Coleman to file a lawsuit. His attorney, Tony Trimble, said Monday afternoon that the challenge would be filed within 24 hours.

“This process isn’t at an end,” Trimble said. “It is now just at the beginning.”

A lawsuit would open doors closed to the campaigns during the administrative recount. The campaigns would be able to access voter rolls, inspect machines and get testimony from election workers.

When the smoke cleared after the election, Coleman appeared to hold a 215-vote lead. But Franken made up the deficit over seven tortuous weeks of ballot-sifting, in part by winning more of the challenges that both campaigns brought against thousands of ballots.

Franken also did better than Coleman when election officials opened and counted more than 900 absentee ballots that had erroneously been disqualified on Election Day.

Likely to be a major feature of any lawsuit is the argument by Coleman’s lawyers that some ballots were mishandled and others were wrongly excluded from the recount, giving Franken an unfair advantage.

Secretary of State Mark Ritchie was careful Monday to note that the board was simply signing off on the numbers found by the recount: Franken, with 1,212,431 votes, and Coleman, with 1,212,206 votes.

“We’re not doing anything today that declares winners or losers or anything to that effect,” Ritchie said.

All five members of the canvassing board – Ritchie, plus two state Supreme Court justices and two Ramsey County judges – voted to accept the recount results.

A lawsuit case would fall to a three-judge panel picked by Chief Justice Eric Magnuson of the Supreme Court. Magnuson served on the Canvassing Board, but declined to say Monday if he would remove himself from the selection process as a result. Magnuson was an appointee of Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

Costs of the election lawsuit fall to the campaigns. But there is a provision in state law that exposes the government to costs if results are reversed due to any irregularity in election procedure.

The Canvassing Board’s declaration Monday starts a seven-day clock for Coleman to file a lawsuit protesting the result. If he doesn’t, Franken will get the election certificate he needs to take the seat in Washington.

Franken, a former “Saturday Night Live” personality, ended the recount up by 225 votes.

Coleman’s lawyers have argued that some ballots were mishandled and others were wrongly excluded from the recount. After a Minnesota Supreme Court decision went against Coleman earlier Monday, lead attorney Fritz Knaak (kuh-NOCK’) said a lawsuit was inevitable.