U.S. District Court Judge Robert Pitman will hear Bilyeu v Esparza, w.d., 1:21cv-1089, on February 24 at 9 a.m. in Austin. The issue is whether to grant injunctive relief against the new Texas law requiring candidates seeking a nomination at a convention to have already paid a filing fee.

The Libertarian and Green Parties are on the ballot, and are the only parties affected this year by the new requirement. They nominate by convention. Texas has long required filing fees for candidates seeking a place on a major party primary ballot, but that law has the purpose of keeping primary ballots from being too crowded, because no petition is needed for a candidate to get on a primary ballot. The new law has no clear purpose other than to inhibit convention choices.

On January 19, the Alaska Supreme Court issued a two-page order saying the top-four initiative does not violate the Alaska Constitution. The order says an explanation will be issued in the future. Here is the order, which came only 24 hours after the oral argument.

On January 19, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Federal Election Commission v Ted Cruz for Senate, 21-12. The issue is a law that limits the amount of money a federal candidate may receive in donations after the election, when he or she has gone into debt before the election and the purpose of soliciting donations is to retire the debt. The law limits such post-election donations to $250,000. See this story. The lower court had struck down the limit. The law applies equally to candidates who won or lost the election.

One can hear the audio of the argument using this link.