The Eighth Circuit will hear Whitfield v Thurston, 20-2309, on March 18, 2021. This is the case over whether the Arkansas ballot access petition for statewide independent candidates should have been relaxed last year, given the health crisis. The law required 10,000 signatures by early May. The plaintiff-candidate, Dan Whitfield, was running for U.S. Senate. The courts denied injunctive relief but the issue of declaratory relief is still unsettled.