On June 13, officials for the state of Alabama asked for a second extension of time in which to file their response in Hall v Merrill, 18-1362, now pending in the U.S. Supreme Court. The original deadline for the state had been May 30, but the state had already obtained an extension until July 1. Now the state hopes to extend that to July 31.

The issue originally was whether it is unconstitutional to require an independent candidate for U.S. House to obtain signatures equal to 3% of the last gubernatorial vote, in a special election, when there isn’t as much time as in a regular election. The U.S. District Court struck down the law as applied to special elections, but the U.S. District Court Judge issued that opinion after the election was over. The state appealed to the Eleventh Circuit. The Eleventh Circuit ruled 2-1 that ballot access cases involving special elections are moot if they are decided after the election is over. Therefore, the Eleven Circuit erased the U.S. District Court decision.

In the U.S. Supreme Court, the issue is whether constitutional ballot access cases are moot, after the election, if the election is a special election. Almost every other Circuit has weighed in on mootness in ballot access constitutional cases, and no other circuit agrees with the Eleventh Circuit.

We won’t know whether the U.S. Supreme Court will take this case until early October 2019.