U.S. District Court Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald, an Obama appointee, will hear De La Fuente v Padilla, c.d., 2:16cv-3242, on Monday, August 21, at 3 p.m., in Los Angeles. This is the case that challenges the California law requiring independent presidential candidates to submit almost 200,000 valid signatures. In 2016 the requirement had been 178,039, but since then California has taken steps to substantially increase the number of registered voters, and the petition requirement is keyed to the number of registered voters, so it will probably be 200,000 by the next presidential election.