The Courthouse News Service has this article about the June 16 argument in the Eighth Circuit about Minnesota ballot access.
Reply
Law Professor Steve Vladeck has this commentary at MSNBC, criticizing the Tenth Circuit opinion Fitisemanu v USA, 20-4017. The decision came down on June 15 and said that despite the Fourteenth Amendment, which says “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside”, persons born in American Samoa are not U.S. citizens, even if they are living in a state. The case had been filed by individuals living in Utah but who were born in American Samoa. Thanks to Howard Bashman for the link.
On June 11, Congressman Don Beyer (D-Virginia) introduced HR 3863. It requires all states with more than one member of the U.S. House to establish multi-member districts. It also requires ranked choice voting for congressional elections, and requires states to have nonpartisan redistricting commissions to draw any U.S. House boundaries. Thanks to Rob Richie for this news. The website for Congress still doesn’t have the bill’s text.
On June 17, Illinois Governor J. B. Pritzger signed SB 825, which moves the 2022 primary from March to June. It also moves the deadline for independent candidate petitions, and petitions for the nominees of unqualified parties, from June to July 13. Thanks to Sam Cahnman for this news.
On June 16, the U.S. House passed SB 475, which makes Juneteenth a federal holiday. Only fourteen members voted “no”. Of those fourteen, thirteen are from states in which independents are allowed to vote in partisan primaries. This blog post is not taking any position on the merits of the new holiday. But it is worth noting that the groups who do not believe in the right of political parties to make their own decisions about whom to nominate constantly reiterate that when independents can vote in primaries, more “moderate” politicians are elected. The evidence constantly rebuts that idea, but many people cling to it.
“No” votes were cast by nine members of congress from open primary states, two from a state with semi-closed primaries, two from a state with a top-two system, and only one from a closed primary state.
The members from open primary states are: two from Alabama (Mo Brooks and Mike Rogers), two from Texas (Chip Roy and Ronny Jackson), one from Georgia (Andrew Clyde), one from Montana (Matt Rosendale), one from South Carolina (Ralph Norman), one from Tennessee (Scott DesJarlais), and one from Wisconsin (Tom Tiffany).
The members from a top-two state are these two Californians: Doug LaMalfa and Tom McClintock.
The members from a semi-closed primary state are these two from Arizona: Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs.
The member from a closed primary state is Kentucky member Thomas Massie.