On June 6, U.S. District Court Judge Lynn Adelman, a Clinton appointee, issued a ruling in Stencil v Johnson, e.d., 2:22cv-305. This is a lawsuit filed in March 2022 by ten Wisconsin voters who wanted a federal court to declare that U.S. Senator Ron Johnson, and two Republican candidates for U.S. House, are ineligible to be in Congress because of the 14th Amendment’s “insurrection” Clause.

The ruling says the case is procedurally flawed. It says the plaintiffs should have sued the Wisconsin Election Commission, not the candidates themselves.

California held its top-two primary on June 7. No independent candidates placed first or second for any statewide race, nor for any U.S. House race. The California press had speculated that an independent candidate might place first or second for Governor and for Attorney General. But only Democrats and Republicans placed first or second in any statewide race. All statewide races will be one Democrat versus one Republican, except that Insurance Commissioner might be two Democrats, although more votes must be counted before this is certain.

For U.S. House, there will be one minor party candidate on the November ballot. This was predictable, because in the Tenth District, the only two candidates who filed to be on the primary ballot were a Democrat and a Green.

There will be two Democrats running against each other in November in these districts: 9, 15, 16, 34, 37, and maybe 30. There are no districts with two Republicans.

On April 13, U.S. District Court Judge James Moody, a Clinton appointee, denied the state’s motion to dismiss Liberty Initiative Fund v Thurston, e.d., 4:21cv-460. The lawsuit challenges Arkansas laws that make initiative petitioning difficult. Specifically, the law bans out-of-state circulators for initiatives; bans paying per-signature; and has a county distribution requirement. There are also some laws that put other burdens on the process, such as requiring every circulator to constantly tell the state where he or she lives.

There will be a trial next year. The state had tried to get the entire lawsuit dismissed, partly because Arkansas is in the Eighth Circuit, and in 1999 the Eighth Circuit upheld North Dakota’s ban on out-of-state circulators and paying per-signature. But as Judge Moody noted, the plaintiffs in the old North Dakota case had not presented much evidence, and thus that old case doesn’t control the outcome of this current Arkansas case.