U.S. District Court Judge Richard Myers, a Trump appointee, will hear Cawthorn v Circosta, e.d., 5:22cv-50, on Monday, February 28, at 10 a.m. This is the lawsuit filed by Congressman Madison Cawthorn to stop the State Board of Elections from adjudicating whether he meets the constitutional qualifications to run for Congress. He is being challenged under the Fourteenth Amendment, section three, regarding “insurrection”.
Jeff Coleman is a Republican candidate for U.S. House, second district, who filed for the Republican primary on February 10. That was one day before the deadline set out in the redistricting decision by a 3-judge U.S. District Court. But his ballot access is doubtful because the U.S. Supreme Court stayed the order of the U.S. District Court on February 7, and the state won’t recognize candidates who relied on the date change made by the U.S. District Court.
Coleman asked the 3-judge court to resolve the matter, but in response the state says Coleman has no right to intervene in the case. Presumably the state expects him to file his own entirely new lawsuit, which of course takes time. Here is the state’s brief, opposing Coleman’s request to intervene in Singleton v Merrill, n.d., 2:21cv-1291.
Last month, a 3-judge U.S. District Court in Alabama invalidated the state’s U.S. House district plan, and ordered the legislature to draw new districts. That decision also moved the primary filing deadline from January 28 to February 11.
But then on February 7, the U.S. Supreme Court stayed that order, without mentioning anything about the filing deadline. Therefore, the deadline is not clear. Jeff Coleman, a Republican who wants to run for U.S. House in the Second District, filed for the Republican primary on February 10, which was one day before the deadline ordered by the U.S. District Court. The Republican Party and the Secretary of State are not accepting his filing because they think it was late, even though it was in accordance with a court order. This news story says Coleman has filed a federal lawsuit over the matter. When more details about this lawsuit are found, they will be posted here.
On February 8, some of the plaintiffs in a separate Alabama U.S. House redistricting case asked the original 3-judge panel to rule in their favor, notwithstanding the U.S. Supreme Court stay in a different Alabama redistricting case on the afternoon of February 7. The plaintiffs have a theory under which the 3-judge court could do that. See their filing here. Singleton v Merrill, n.d., 2:21cv-1291. Singleton v Merrill, n.d., 2:21cv-1291.
On February 1, the Texas Supreme Court stayed a ruling of a trial court that would have removed a Republican candidate from the March 1 primary ballot. Rachel Leal-Hudson needed 250 signatures. She submitted 530 and there were enough valid. However, her primary opponent sued to remove her on the grounds that ten signatures had been witnessed by the candidate’s husband, and yet the candidate had signed the petition form indicating she had been the witness. The trial court removed her from the ballot, but the Texas Supreme Court disagreed and kept her on the ballot. See this story.
