On June 23, the Ninth Circuit determined that the lawsuit Washington State Republican Party v Washington State Grange will be heard by Judges Raymond C. Fisher, Dorothy Nelson, and Pamela Ann Rymer. Normally no U.S. Court of Appeals identifies which judges will hear a particular case this early in the process. However, the political parties had asked for the same three judges who had had this same case back in 2006. Washington state and the Washington State Grange, on the other side, did not oppose that idea.

Back on August 22, 2006, that panel had invalidated the Washington state top-two system. Then the case had gone to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in March 2008 that the system wasn’t necessarily unconstitutional on freedom of association grounds, and ruled that questoin could only be determined after the system had been used. That is why the case is still alive. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2008 had also declined to consider the ballot access and trademark issues, because the lower courts had not ruled on those two issues.

All three judges are southern Californians. Judge Nelson is a Carter appointee, Judge Rymer is a Bush Jr. appointee, and Judge Fisher is a Clinton appointee.