The U.S. Supreme Court held a conference on Friday, April 25, to decide whether to hear various cases, including Meadors v Erie County Board of Elections, 24-684. Normally the court does not disclose information about which cases they decide to take until the following Monday, which would be April 28.

However, the Court’s website, as updated on April 27, shows that the conference for the Meadors case has been “rescheduled.” This is an encouraging sign. Probably in a few days the Court website will list a new conference date. Frequently, when the Court is interested in a case, it mulls over whether to hear on multiple conference dates, typically once per week.

The Meadors case challenges the May petition deadline for independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties. In 2019 the New York legislature moved that deadline from August to May. The deadline was challenged by the Mayor of Buffalo, who wanted to get on the ballot for re-election as an independent in the 2021 election. He won injunctive relief before the election, but the Second Circuit reversed that. Then, after the election, a different U.S. District Court upheld the deadline. On appeal, the Second Circuit said the case is moot. That was something both sides to the lawsuit disagreed with. In 1969 the U.S. Supreme Court had said in Moore v Ogilvie that constitutional ballot access cases are not moot just because the election is over. So in the U.S. Supreme Court currently, the briefs are focused on the issue of mootness more than on the constitutionality of the deadline itself. If the U.S. Supreme Court takes the case and decides it is not moot, then it would go back to the lower courts for a decision on the deadline itself.