The Constitution Party has a national committee meeting in Erie, Pennsylvania, on April 29-30. Alan Keyes is the speaker for the Friday evening session. This is somewhat surprising, because Alan Keyes and the Constitution Party parted ways in 2008. Keyes had sought the party’s presidential nomination in 2008, but after he was defeated at the convention by Chuck Baldwin, his supporters left the meeting and then organized their own party, America’s Independent Party. The new party then nominated Keyes. The California unit of the Constitution Party disaffiliated from the Constitution Party and became the only ballot-qualified party that nominated Keyes.

See the announcement here, at the party’s national website.

The American Independent Party in California had two rival state conventions in 2008, and the faction loyal to the Constitution Party had a bigger attendance of state central committee members than the other faction did. But California Secretary of State Debra Bowen recognized the Keyes faction anyway, and since then the California AIP has never nominated the Constitution Party’s presidential nominee.

On March 8, the Mississippi Senate passed HC 39, the constitutional amendment to restore the statewide initiative process. However, the Senate amended the bill, so now it must return to the House for concurrence. The Senate vote was unanimous.

Mississippi had the initiative until last year, when the State Supreme Court ruled that it was fundamentally flawed and could not be used until it was fixed. The old law, part of the State Constitution, said signatures are needed from all five U.S. House districts, but Mississippi doesn’t have five districts any more. It only has four.

If the bill passes, then the voters will vote on it in November 2022.

On March 10, U.S. District Court Judge Richard E. Myers issued a written opinion in Cawthorn v Circosta, e.d., 5:22cv-50. This is the North Carolina case filed by Congressman Madison Cawthorn, to stop election officials from determining if he meets the constitutional qualifications to run for Congress. On March 4, Judge Myers had ruled from the bench that the Fourteenth Amendment, section three, is longer in force because Congress passed bills in 1872 and 1898 giving everyone an amnesty. See the part of the opinion that starts on page 19.

On March 11, North Carolina election officials filed a notice of appeal. In the Fourth Circuit the case number is 22-1251.