The Ninth Circuit will hear Thompson v Hebdon, 17-35019, on Monday, February 22, at 10 a.m. This is the Alaska case over the $500 limit on how much an individual may contribute to a candidate for state office, or to a political group. The law also makes it almost impossible for a non-resident of Alaska to contribute anything. The Ninth Circuit had upheld these laws in 2018, but then in 2019 the U.S. Supreme Court had summarily reversed the decision and remanded it back to the Ninth Circuit.

In 2006 the U.S. Supreme Court had struck down Vermont’s $400 limits in Randall v Sorrell. The Ninth Circuit in the Alaska case had declined to apply the Randall decision because there was no single U.S. Supreme Court opinion signed by a majority of members of the U.S. Supreme Court. But then the U.S. Supreme Court said the Ninth Circuit was in error; the Randall holding is binding regardless of whether there was a single majority opinion.

Here is the Ninth Circuit brief of the groups opposed to the Alaska limits. It was filed in March 2020. The case has moved very slowly.