“The Case for Enlarging the House of Representatives” has just been published by Lee Drutman, Jonathan D. Cohen, Yuval Levin, and Norman J. Ornstein. See it here.
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On December 15, the Alaskan Independence Party filed this reply Brief in the Alaska Supreme Court in Kohlhaas v State, S-18210.
The reply brief, as expected, argues that the top-four initiative passed last year violates the Alaska Constitution. But it also suggests a possible compromise. Pages two and three points out that the initiative covered three separate subjects: campaign finance disclosure, top-four, and ranked choice voting for the general election. This reply brief suggests that because these are so diverse from each other, that the court might order a re-vote on the initiative in 2022, with all three subjects separated out from each other, so the voters could vote separately on each idea.
The national Libertarian Party website has this list of Libertarians who won election on November 2, 2021.
On December 10, individuals who wish to petition at the polls in Wyoming filed this brief in the Tenth Circuit in Frank v Lee, 21-8060. This is the case against Wyoming’s 300-foot zone around polling places. Inside the zone no petitioning is allowed.
The U.S. District Court had struck down the zone, and the state had then appealed. Although the U.S. Supreme Court and various other courts have upheld 100-foot zones, no other court has ever approved a larger zone.
On December 14, the Georgia Libertarian Party filed this Reply Brief in Cowen v Georgia Secretary of State, 21-13199. The reason the Libertarian Party is able to file one more brief is that both sides are contesting some aspect of the U.S. District Court decision.
This case concerns the 5% petition for district office, for Georgia independent candidates, and the nominees of parties that didn’t poll as much as 20% of the vote for president in the entire nation, or 20% for Governor, in the last election. The U.S. District Court struck down the petition, but imposed a 1% petition to replace it, combined with a filing fee.
Although the Libertarian Party is pleased that the 5% petition was struck down, it is unhappy that the judge imposed her own difficult interim requirement. This new brief is to present the Libertarian case against the interim relief.
The hearing is Friday, December 17, in Atlanta.