On August 2, the Seventh Circuit issued an opinion in Hero v Lake County Election Board, 21-2793. The issue was whether election officials had the right to exclude a Republican candidate for local office from the primary ballot, which they did because the party objected to his past support for independent candidates. The opinion says the plaintiff was always free to run as an independent candidate.

This outcome is surprising. The Seventh Circuit had never before issued any opinion giving political parties this much power. The Ninth Circuit has rejected similar lawsuits in the past. The Eleventh Circuit had upheld the right of the Republican Parties of Florida and Georgia to exclude David Duke from its presidential primaries, and the Eighth Circuit had upheld the right of the Republican Party to exclude Rocky De La Fuente from its 2020 presidential primary, but there are no similar circuit decisions that relate to primaries other than presidential primaries.

Here is a news story.

On August 3, law professor Anthony Schutz, an expert on the Nebraska Constitution, and Steven R. Dunbar, a mathematician, filed this amicus curiae brief in Eggers v Evnen in the Eighth Circuit, case no. 22-2268. The issue is the county distribution requirement for statewide initiatives. The brief demonstrates objectively that the county distribution requirement gives more power to voters in low-population counties than those in other counties.

On August 4, the People’s Party filed its Eleventh Circuit brief in People’s Party of Florida v Department of State, 22-12451. The issue is the relatively new Florida law that makes it impossible for a newly-qualifying party to run any candidates in its first year on the ballot.

Here is the brief.