On June 10, the Tennessee Supreme Court removed Bobby Starbuck Newsom from the August 2022 Republican primary ballot. He has been trying to run for U.S. House this year, but the Republican Party has a new bylaw, barring candidates in its primary who did not vote in three of the last four Republican primaries. Newsom couldn’t comply with that because he hasn’t lived in Tennessee long enough.

First he sued in federal court, charging that the new rule imposes a qualification to run for congress that is not mentioned in the U.S. Constitution, but the U.S. District Court ruled against injunctive relief. Then he dismissed his federal case and sued the Republican Party for having violated the state’s open meetings law when it removed him. He won injunctive relief in the state trial court, but the Tennessee Supreme Court has reversed that, saying the open records law only applies to political parties when they are acting as an election administration body. Here is the 7-page decision in Newsom v Tennessee Republican Party, M2022-00735.