On July 31, the Eighth Circuit stayed the decision of the U.S. District Court in the Minnesota Democratic Party lawsuit over the order of candidates on the ballot. Thus for the November 2020 election, the statutory law will remain in effect. It is a unique law that says the order of the nominees of the ballot-qualified parties is inverse to how well they did in the previous general election. So, the nominees of the two ballot-qualified marijuana parties will be placed first, followed by Republican nominees, followed by Democratic nominees. Next come the nominees of the unqualified parties and the independent candidates.

The Democratic Party had filed this lawsuit last year, and had won in U.S. District Court. It is surprising that the Eighth Circuit granted a stay, because the state government had not appealed to the Eighth Circuit. The Minnesota Secretary of State, Steve Simon, is a Democrat and he was satisfied with the U.S. District Court decision, which had told him to hold a random drawing to determine the order of the qualified parties. The appeal to the Eighth Circuit was taken by the Donald Trump re-election committee and various units of the national and state Republican Parties.

Here is the 6-page order of the Eighth Circuit in Pavek v Simon, 20-2410. Back in 1980, the Eighth Circuit had struck down North Dakota’s law on the order of parties on ballots. The new Eighth Circuit opinion says the issue in North Dakota was different, because North Dakota’s law, putting the party first that had won the last gubernatorial election, helped cement the parties that were already entrenched. But the Minnesota law is different, because it helps weaker parties. The three judges are James B. Loken (a Bush Sr. appointee), Bobby Shepherd (Bush Jr.) and L. Steven Grasz (Trump).