On April 25, the Alaska House State Affairs Committee passed SB 161, the bill to ease the definition of a qualified party. The bill had already passed the Senate. Now it goes to the House Judiciary Committee, which will hear it on April 27, Wednesday.
The highest state court in New York, the State Court of Appeals, will hear Harkenrider v Hochul on Tuesday, April 26. This is the case over U.S. House district boundaries. The lower state courts had invalidated the U.S. House plan as an illegal gerrymander. Thanks to Joe Burns for this news.
On April 23, Jay Jacobs, state chair of the New York Democratic Party, said he has changed his mind, and he no longer supports the creation of a “Fair Deal Party” that would cross-endorse Democratic Party nominees. He said this after receiving assurances from the Working Families Party that the WFP will support whomever the Democrats nominate for Governor.
On April 25, a Kansas state trial court issued a 209-page opinion in Rivera v Schwab, 2022-cv-89, 29th judicial district, Wyandotte County District Court. It finds that the new U.S. House boundaries violate the Kansas Constitution, because they were drawn for partisan advantage and they also diminish the voting power of Black voters.
Here is a newspaper story about the ruling.
On April 25, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Libertarian Party of Alabama v Merrill, 21-1288. This is the case over the Alabama law that gives the list of registered voters free to qualified parties, but charges an unqualified party that is petitioning $37,000 to get the list.
In 1970, the U.S. Supreme Court had summarily affirmed a U.S. District Court decision that said just the opposite. This is one more example of the Court back-tracking on its older favorable precedents. It also continues an unbroken 31-year habit of rejecting all election law cert petitions filed by a minor party or an independent candidate.
