On April 27, some voters born in America Samoa asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their citizenship case. The question is whether persons born in the territory should be considered citizens automatically, or whether they need to go through the naturalization process. Fitisemanu v U.S., 21-1394. American Samoa is the only U.S. possession in which persons born there are not citizens; instead they are U.S. “nationals.” Here is the cert petition. Thanks to ElectionLawNews for this news.
The Michigan petition deadline for primary candidates was April 19. Ten Republicans submitted petitions to be on the ballot for Governor. They each needed 15,000 signatures. Any registered voter may sign. The primary is August 2.
Three of the leading candidates’ petitions have been challenged. See this story. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link. The three challenged candidates are James Craig, Tudor Dixon, and Perry Johnson. The Michigan Democratic Party filed the challenges.
New York state legislators and other influential actors have reached no consensus on whether to move the entire primary from June to August, or whether to have one primary in June for statewide, assembly and local offices, and a later primary for U.S. House and State Senate. The districts aren’t set yet for those last two offices. See this story.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul is pushing the legislature to amend the election law, regarding withdrawal of candidates, in time to take effect for this year’s primary, which is in June. See this story. The legislature seems disinclined to do that.
The April 28 issue of the Des Moines Register has this news story about the decision of a U.S. District court, striking down the March petition deadline for independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties. That decision was released on April 8. The Des Moines Register is the first daily newspaper in Iowa to mention this news.
