The 9th circuit will hear McComish v Brewer, 10-15166, on April 12, probably in San Francisco. This is the case over certain aspects of Arizona’s public funding law for candidates. The lawsuit challenges the part of the program that provides extra public funding for candidates who have a privately-funded opponent with a great deal of funding.

The U.S. District Court had ruled that part of the public funding law to be invalid. The U.S. District Court had also said that the unconstitutional parts can’t be separated out from the remainder of the program. A majority of Arizona legislators are hostile to the program, so they are not likely to pass any bill repairing the system. This is somewhat different from the situation in Connecticut. In Connecticut, a majority of legislators favor the public funding, so the Connecticut legislature will probably repair the parts that have so far been held unconstitutional.