On August 11, the Eighth Circuit struck down South Dakota’s February petition deadline for initiatives.  Dakotans for Health v Johnson, 25-2940.  The vote is 2-1.  The majority opinion is by Judge Raymond Gruender, a Bush Jr. appointee; and is also signed by Judge Jane Kelly, an Obama appointee.  The dissent is by Judge James B. Loken, a Bush Sr. appointee.

The decision upholds the decision of the U.S. District Court, and is based on a 2023 Eighth Circuit decision that struck down the deadline of November in the year before the election, SD Voice v Noem.  Judge Gruender participated in that decision also.  The majority believes that it is a curtailment of the First Amendment to fence out large areas of the calendar in which it is impossible to circulate initiative petitions.  This is actually clearer if one reads the 2023 decision, than today’s opinion.

The dissent in today’s opinion says the deadline is needed by the state to give it more time to determine if the initiative has enough valid signatures and that there was no fraud in the petitioning process.  Here is the decision.

The Eighth Circuit’s 2023 opinion, striking down the November deadline, is here, and contains a further description of why the First Amendment is violated when states won’t permit petitioning in certain time periods.

UPDATE:  see this news story.

On August 10, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Pitman, an Obama appointee, refused to put Michael Collier on the Texas ballot as an independent candidate for Lieutenant Governor.  The judge wrote that even if the law is unconstitutional, it is not clear that Collier would have succeeded in getting on the ballot even if Texas had had a moderate requirement.  The case will continue until the constitutional issue is settled.  The law requires 81,000 signatures to be collected in 30 days.  Here is the 8-page ruling.

On August 7, the Nebraska Secretary of State announced that the America First Party, and the Nebraska Working People Party, each have enough valid signatures to gain qualified status.  See this story.