On the evening of April 11, U.S. District Court Judge Amy Totenberg said she won’t be releasing a decision in Greene v Raffensperger today, but she will release it this week. This is the case filed by Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, seeking a federal court order to stop the administrative proceeding on whether she meets the qualifications. That process will start on April 22.
On April 11, the New Hampshire Supreme Court said that it would assume responsibility for redistricting the state’s U.S. House seats. See this court order. The court took this action because the Governor has said he will veto the plan passed by the legislature (although he hasn’t done so yet), and time is running out. Thanks to ElectionLawBlog for the link.
On April 11, a state trial court in Iowa removed Abby Finkenauer from the June 7 Iowa Democratic Party primary ballot, because she was three signatures short. However, she had enough signatures statewide, and the state law that requires a certain number of signatures for a certain number of counties is unconstitutional under Moore v Ogilvie, a 1969 U.S. Supreme Court that invalidated county distribution requirements for statewide petitions. There are about a dozen similar precedents from lower courts. The two most recent are Constitution Party of Pennsylvania v Cortes, 877 F.3d 480 (2017) and Montana Green Party v Jacobson, 17 F.4th 919 (2021). See this story. The case is Schmett v State Objections Panel, Polk Co., cv63390. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the news.
Finkenauer is considered the most likely candidate to win the primary, assuming she eventually gets on the ballot. She is appealing. The Iowa distribution requirement is 100 signatures from each of nineteen counties.
On April 8, U.S. District Court Judge John L. Kane, a Carter appointee, declined to enjoin a 2016 Colorado law that forces the major parties to let independent voters vote in their primaries, unless three-fourths of the members of the state committee voted to instead nominate by convention. Parable v Griswold, 1:22cv-477. The lawsuit was flawed because the Colorado Republican Party itself was not a plaintiff; instead most of the plaintiffs were Republican Party leaders.
Here is the opinion. Thanks to Michael McCorkle for the link.
A decision is expected on Monday, April 11, in Greene v Raffensperger, n.d., 1:22cv-1294. According to this story, U.S. District Court Judge Amy Totenberg is likely to rule that Georgia election officials may proceed with the administrative hearing that challenges whether Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene meets the qualifications to run for Congress. The story is based on what the judge said at the oral argument on Friday, April 8.
