The U.S. Supreme Court will ponder whether to hear Arizona’s ballot access appeal at its March 6 conference. Results won’t be released to the public until March 9. It is always possible the Court will be undecided on March 6, so there won’t necessarily be any news on March 9 about the case. The issues are Arizona’s ban on out-of-state circulators, and whether early June is too early to require independent presidential petitions to be submitted.

The State’s briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court so far insist that there is a conflict between the 9th circuit, and the Arizona Supreme Court, on the constitutionality of an early June petition deadline. The state is wrong to say that. The Arizona Supreme Court upheld the June 29, 2000 deadline in a case filed by Harry Browne in 2000. Some years later, the Arizona legislature made the deadline even earlier, so that the independent deadline in 2008 was June 4. A June 4 deadline is significantly different than a June 29 deadline.