On August 22, U.S. District Court Judge Louise Flanagan, a Bush Jr. appointee, issued a 17-page order in Poindexter v Strach, e.d., 5:18cv-366. The order puts three Constitution Party nominees on the ballot, for legislature and county office. The State Board of Elections had kept them off the ballot because earlier in the year, they had run in Republican or Democratic primaries and lost those primaries. But at the time the Constitution Party nominated them, there was no law preventing a party like the Constitution Party from nominating such “sore losers.”

After the party had nominated them, a new law went into effect barring convention parties from nominating people who had earlier that year lost major party primaries. But the court order says it violates federal due process to make the ballot access laws more restrictive, so that a candidate loses ballot position because of the new law. Thanks to Kevin Hayes for this news.