On January 19, the U.S. District Court Judge in Utah who is handling the Republican Party lawsuit over nomination methods told both sides to ask the Utah Supreme Court to settle what exactly the existing law requires. The submissions are due January 27. The question for the Utah Supreme Court is whether the existing law in fact requires political parties to allow candidates to petition onto that party’s primary ballot or not.

If the Utah Supreme Court interprets the existing law to mean that a party can block candidates from petitioning onto the primary ballot, then there is no need for the federal court to decide if the primary petition requirements are too burdensome. But if the Utah Supreme Court says the Republican Party must let candidates petition onto the Republican primary ballot, then the U.S. District Court will decide whether those petitions are too burdensome. They require 28,000 signatures for statewide office, and 7,000 for U.S. House.