On March 10, U.S. District Court Judge J. Michelle Childs, an Obama appointee, held a hearing (starting at 10 a.m.) in Greenville County Republican Party v State of South Carolina, 6:10-cv-1407. The hearing is in Greenville. This is the lawsuit in which the Republican Party seeks to prevent non-members from voting in the party’s primaries. The case also challenges a state law that says if a party decides to nominate by convention, it can only do that if at least 3/4ths of the delegates to a party meeting vote in favor of convention nominations. See this story, which was written before the hearing started.

The hearing is still preceding as this post is being written. Check back later for any possible account of the hearing. A decision is expected fairly quickly, because there are partisan elections for Greenville city office later this year and the party hopes for a ruling in time to affect that election. UPDATE: the hearing lasted 2.5 hours. The judge did not indicate when she will rule.