On January 14, the Ninth Circuit heard oral argument in Mecinas v Hobbs, 20-16301. This is the Democratic Party’s lawsuit against the Arizona law on the order of candidates on the general election ballot. The law gives the top line to the nominees of the party that carried that particular county in the last gubernatorial election. Because the Republican nominee for Governor in 2018 carried all but four counties, in 2020 most voters in the state had ballots in which Republican nominees had the top line.

The oral argument went very well for the Democratic Party. All three judges seemed deeply skeptical of the lower court decision, which had said that the Democratic Party doesn’t have standing. Watch the 31-minute oral argument at this link. Two of the three judges were in the courtroom, while the third judge appeared electronically. The attorneys for both sides also appeared electronically.