On July 12, U.S. District Court Judge James M. Moody issued a one-page order in Moore v Martin, e.d. 4:14cv-65. This is the case filed in 2014 to overturn the early petition deadline for non-presidential independent candidates in Arkansas. Originally the judge had upheld the deadline, but then the 8th circuit had remanded the case back, and said that unless the state could show that it could not possibly check independent candidate petitions without a March deadline, the deadline should be invalidated.

On remand, the U.S. District Court held a trial and then struck down the deadline and said Moore had until May 1, 2018, to submit petitions. That decision was issued on January 25, 2018.

Afterwards, the plaintiff-candidate, Mark Moore, tried to comply with the new easier deadline, but did not successfully complete his petition by that new deadline. Then attorneys for the state tried to persuade the U.S. District Court to vacate the January 2018 decision. But on July 12, the U.S. District Court Judge refused to do that.

This same case is also pending in the Eighth Circuit, because attorneys for the state are also trying to persuade the Eighth Circuit that the U.S. District Court should not have given any relief to Moore, because he didn’t file a declaration of candidacy by the March deadline this year. The U.S. District Court had already rejected that request from the state.