On August 27, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Mills, a semi-retired Reagan appointee, refused to issue an injunction against the Illinois law that governs the number of signatures needed for an independent candidate for the U.S. House. Illinois law requires exactly 5,000 signatures in years after redistricting. But in all other election years, it requires 5% of the last vote cast, which is over 10,000 signatures in most districts. The case is Stevo v Keith, 08-3162, central district.

The 13-page opinion contains not a single word about what the state interest is, in requiring twice as many signatures in some election years as opposed to other election years. The opinion says that there is no precedent that says such a law is unconstitutional. Of course, this is because no other state has ever had such a law, so there couldn’t be any precedents from a state other than Illinois. Most of the opinion consists of pointing out that the various precedents cited by Stevo are not exactly on-point.

Stevo will probably appeal to the 7th circuit.