On January 10, U.S. District Court Judge Robert M. Dow, Jr., a Bush Jr. appointee, upheld the Illinois election law that requires candidates for citywide office in Chicago to obtain 12,500 signatures. The case is Stone v Board of Election Commissioners, 10-cv-7727. The 15-page opinion can be read here. The link goes to the brief that the plaintiffs filed in the 7th circuit, asking for reversal; the decision is at the end of the brief, in the Appendix.

The decision was not surprising. 12,500 signatures is 2.74% of the number of people who voted in the last Chicago citywide election, in February 2007. It is also less than 1% of the number of registered voters in Chicago. Six candidates for Mayor qualified for the 2011 election, and the petitions of three other Mayoral candidates may or may not succeed, depending on the outcome of challenges that are still going on.