On September 2, Jason Gonzales, an Illinois candidate for the legislature in 2016, asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear his case. Gonzales v Madigan, 21-352. Here is the cert petition. The case began when incumbent Illinois representative Michael Madigan recruited two candidates to run in the Democratic primary. Both candidates had Hispanic surnames. Madigan was already facing Jason Gonzales and the district was majority-Hispanic. Gonzales sued, presenting evidence that the two candidates recruited by Madigan were not bona fide candidates, but were merely brought into the primary to split the Hispanic vote. The Seventh Circuit in 1974 had ruled that bringing sham candidates into an election can violate the U.S. Constitution.

Gonazles lost in the U.S. District Court and the Seventh Circuit, despite the 1974 precedent. Illinois is in the Seventh Circuit.

On July 30, the Ninth Circuit struck down Alaska’s $500 campaign contribution limit in Thompson v Hebdon, 17-35019. On August 20, the court asked both sides to file briefs on whether the case should receive a hearing en banc. The briefs are due September 10. Thanks to the Institute for Free Speech for this news. The original decision on July 30 had been 2-1.

This case is very old. Originally the Ninth Circuit had upheld the limit, and then the U.S. Supreme Court had sent the case back to the Ninth Circuit with instructions to rehear it. Another issue in the case is the Alaska law that says candidates may only receive a small amount of donations from individuals who live outside Alaska.

On September 3, filing for the Canadian parliamentary election closed. The election was called on August 15 and will be on September 20. Parties with candidates in over half the 338 districts are: Liberal 338; Conservative 337; New Democratic 338; Green 252; People’s 312.

See this wikipedia article. Scroll down to the bottom. The “results” chart has this information.

Candidates need 100 signatures and a filing fee of $1,000.