On Friday, April 24, the U.S. Supreme Court considered whether or not to hear two election law cases. One is Citizen Center v Colorado Secretary of State, 14-998, over whether the U.S. Constitution protects secrecy in voting. Citizen Center had sued the Secretary of State, and six county election officials, in 2012 because the ballot-counting equipment theoretically could have let election officials see how particular voters voted. The U.S. District Court said there is no protection for secrecy in the U.S. Constitution. On appeal, the Tenth Circuit said the election officials had mostly fixed the problem so most of the claims in the lawsuit are moot.

It is not likely that the U.S. Supreme Court will hear this case, because the election officials declined to file a response to the cert petition, and the U.S. Supreme Court did not then ask them to respond.

The other case is O’Keefe v Chisholm, 14-872. The case involves the behavior of Wisconsin law enforcement officials who made repeated night raids on persons suspected of illegally coordinating campaign strategies. The lead plaintiff is Eric O’Keefe, who was once the National Director of the Libertarian Party. This case has gathered much publicity. Here is a news story that explains the case.

The U.S. Supreme Court will probably reveal whether it has taken either of these cases on Monday morning, April 27.