On December 16, the U.S. District Court in the Catoosa County (Georgia) Republican Party case ordered that the Secretary of State be brought into the lawsuit. This is the lawsuit filed by a county Republican Party, alleging that the party has the right to exclude candidates from the party’s primary if the party believes the candidates are not in sympathy with the goals of the party.

This is a sign that the judge is taking the case seriously. The order says that in effect, the Catoosa County Republican Party is asking that a Georgia election law be declared unconstitutional, so it makes sense to have the state itself in the case. Here is the order.

On December 12, the Eighth Circuit refused to stay the U.S. District Court’s injunction against many new Arkansas laws that make it difficult to get initiatives on the ballot. League of Women Voters v Jester, 25-3389. The Eighth Circuit order is unsigned, so at this time it isn’t possible for the public to know which judges in the Eighth Circuit are assigned to the case.

On December 18, a Texas trial court ordered the Republican Party to list David Rogers on its primary ballot. He is running for State Supreme Court, place 8. Texas elects its State Supreme Court justices in partisan elections.

Statewide judicial candidates in primaries need 50 signatures from each of the fifteen state court of appeals districts. The party had originally denied Rogers a place on the ballot because one of the petition sheets had a blank for the circulator to print her name, but she accidentally filled in that blank with the county name instead. But Texas precedent is clear that such minor problems do not invalidate petitions, if the petition was signed by the necessary number of validly registered voters. Rogers v Hooper, Travis County, 98th judicial district court, D-1-GN-25-10912.

Rogers is running in the primary against an incumbent, Brett Busby. UPDATE: in a further legal development, David Rogers is off the ballot.