U.S. District Court Upholds Illinois 5% Petition for U.S. House

On December 18, U.S. District Court Judge Colin S. Bruce, an Obama appointee, upheld the Illinois petition requirement for U.S. House for independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties.  Gill v Scholz, 3:16cv-3221.  The 22-page opinion says that no trial is needed because it is obvious that the law is constitutional, because in 2017 the Seventh Circuit upheld the 5% petition for legislative candidates in Tripp v Scholz.  The two candidate-plaintiffs in Tripp v Scholz needed 2,399 signatures and 2,407 signatures.  David Gill, the plaintiff in the U.S. House case, needed 10,754 valid signatures.

The fallacy in this opinion is that the number of signatures needed for a legislative candidate is far less than the number needed for U.S. House, and that is reflected in the history of successful usage of the petition for each type of office.  No one has successfully completed the 5% petition for U.S. House in Illinois since 1974, when a candidate succeeded in getting 8,593 valid signatures.  This statement is true for all candidates who were challenged.  In Illinois, a candidate whose petition is not challenged is put on the ballot automatically if his or her petition contains a number of signatures equal to 10% of the requirement.

By contrast, many independent and unqualified party nominees for Illinois legislature have succeeded in getting on the ballot during the last 50 years, even when they were challenged.

Originally, the Gill case was assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Sue Myerscough, another Obama appointee who issued an injunction putting Gill on the ballot in August 2016.  The state then appealed, and the Seventh Circuit removed him just before the election, but without explaining why.  The case then returned to the U.S. District Court, and a trial was expected.  But then the case was re-assigned to Judge Bruce, who wrote today’s opinion and who cancelled the trial.


Comments

U.S. District Court Upholds Illinois 5% Petition for U.S. House — 5 Comments

  1. NO trials needed in FACIAL law cases

    Merits — One more BAAAAAAD lawyer case since 1968.

    1. Separate is NOT equal.

    2. Each election is N-E-W.

    3. EQUAL ballot access tests for ALL INDIVIDUAL candidates.

    Next case – instant dismissal – sanctions on plantiff lawyers ???

  2. It appears that the independent petition requirement for the district will be 13,549 for 2020.

    Illinois should base congressional districts on equal numbers of citizens over the age of 18. Greater emphasis should be placed on maintaining integrity of political subdivisions.

    Illinois should eliminate partisan nominations, and exclusionary partisan primaries. Candidates should qualify as individuals with the demonstrated support of 0.1% of the electorate. That would be around 250 persons in a congressional district in Illinois. Supporters would appear at courthouses and be counted. Whether they have a band, and banners, etc. is up to them.

    Political parties would be free to recruit and support candidates.

  3. United Coalition USA
    Facebook AppV Poll
    For US President

    https://m.facebook.com/groups/688373514626911?view=info&refid=18&ref=m_notif&notif_t=group_activity

    Men, only three of the sixteen nominees are female names, less than 19% and so a female winner can break out if you sign up to the California State Libertarian Party’s official page and give a “click”.

    We can demonstrate teamwork with our opposite gender should we go in a be sure to give votes of confidence to the three women.

    Hold off on ranking all the males until the female names catch up, they are more than ten votes behind the top ranked names, which is a male.

    Bring the herd in 2020, Go Ogle [One], not affiliated with Google One.

  4. The JUNK case is yet another 1857 Dred Scott type case —

    keeping the rotted ANTI-Democracy gerrymander structure operating

    — Donkey plurality extremist vs Elephant plurality extremist in rigged gerrymander general elections.

    See 1860 gerrymander election

    — Result 1861-1865 super-horrific Civil WAR I – about 750,000 DEAD on both sides

    — southern States econ wrecked for about 75 plus years with nonstop racism 150 years plus.

    Is Prez Lincoln spinning in his grave in IL sounding alarm bells ???
    —-
    PR and AppV — pending Condorcet.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.