On April 8, a few minutes before midnight, U.S. District Court Judge Brian Morris issued an order in Breck v Stapleton, 9:17cv-36. The order says it is almost certainly unconstitutional for Montana to require 14,268 signatures for independent candidates, and the nominees of unqualified parties, to get on the ballot in the upcoming special election for U.S. House.

The order replaces 14,268 with 400, for this election only. The order does not say when the 400 signatures must be obtained. Because the ballots have been printed in some counties, and are about to be printed in other counties, it is likely that the 400 signatures must be collected in the next few days in order for any of the three plaintiff candidates to get on the ballot.

The order seems to rebut the state’s argument that the candidates should have started collecting signatures as soon as it was announced that President Trump had nominated Congressman Ryan Zinke to be in the cabinet. The order says, “The State could point to no court decision, however, that suggested putative candidates should start collecting signatures based on the mere possibility of an election.” Obviously there is no vacancy until a member of Congress resigns, and of course Congressman Zinke did not resign his seat until after the U.S. Senate had confirmed him.