On September 28, the U.S. Supreme Court will consider whether to hear Kowall v Benson, 21-1360. This is the case in which some Michigan voters and candidates are trying to topple the legislative term limits of Michigan, which are quite severe. The lower courts had upheld the term limits law.
Wyoming Representative Marshall Burt is running for re-election in district 39. His sole opponent on the November ballot will be Cody Wylie, a Republican.
When Burt was elected in 2020, his only opponent was the Democratic incumbent. But this year the Democrats are not running anyone in this district.
On August 24, the proponents of an initiative in Montana asked the Ninth Circuit for rehearing en banc in Pierce v Jacobsen, 21-35173. They only want a rehearing on the part of the August 10 decision that declined to strike down the Montana ban on paying initiative circulators on a per-signature basis. They already won the other half of the case, against the out-of-state ban.
The Ninth Circuit on August 10 had declined to rule against the per-signature ban on the grounds that the evidence wasn’t sufficient. But the initiative supporters argue that their evidence is strong enough.
Lawsuits concerning Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene’s qualifications to run for Congress are still pending in two courts.
Earlier this year, a U.S. District Court had ruled that Greene does not have a right to avoid a challenge in the state courts to her qualifications, relative to the Fourteenth Amendment’s “insurrection” clause. Therefore, Greene had to go through the challenge, which she won in lower state court. However, the challengers to her qualifications have appealed that to the State Supreme Court. That case is Rowan v Raffensperger.
In the meantime, Greene is hoping to persuade the Eleventh Circuit that the U.S. District Court should not have forced her to go through the state challenge process. She argues that state officials cannot adjudicate congressional qualifications. That case is Greene v Secretary of State, 22-11299. To bolster her federal case, on August 19, she notified the Eleventh Circuit that the state case is still alive. Here is her filing to the Eleventh Circuit, which includes as attachments the filings of the challengers in the State Supreme Court.
The Rhode Island Secretary of State’s office initially determined that Elijah Gizzarelli, the Libertarian gubernatorial candidate, only had 946 valid signatures. The requirement is 1,000. But the Gizzarelli campaign persuaded the Secretary of State’s office that some signatures had been invalidated in error, and he will be on the ballot.
He is the first Libertarian to be on the general election ballot for Governor since 1976.
