Two of the most important and interesting election law cases in the nation have been unreasonably delayed by two U.S. Courts of Appeals. The Second Circuit heard arguments in Maslow v Board of Elections in the City of New York, 08-3075, on May 19, 2009, and there is still no decision. That case was argued in front of Judges Peter W. Hall, Debra Ann Livingston, and Chester Stroud. The issue is whether candidate petitions (in primaries) may be circulated by people who aren’t members of that party.

The Sixth Circuit has never scheduled oral arguments in Kurita v The State Primary Board of the Tennessee Democratic Party, 08-6245, even though all the briefs have been filed since May 26, 2009. The issue is whether a political party has the authority to remove the winner of its own primary and substitute the runner-up. The Tennessee Democratic Party refused to certify Rosalind Kurita as its nominee for State Senate in 2008, even though she won the Tennessee Democratic Party primary and even though she was the incumbent. The party said it suspected Republicans had voted in the Democratic primary and that Kurita would not have won without those Republican votes. Tennessee does not have registration by party. Most observers feel the real motivation for the party’s action was that Senator Kurita had voted against her own party when the Senate had chosen officers. The U.S. District Court had upheld the Democratic Party’s decision on October 14, 2008.