On November 18, the Eleventh Circuit issued an unsigned, unpublished order in Cowen v Raffensperger, 24-13164. It says the Libertarian Party must start an entirely new case if it wants to continue its challenge to the petition requirement for U.S. House nominees. The petition is 5% of the number of registered voters, which is so severe that it has never been used by a minor party in its 82-year-old history.

The case was filed in 2017. It initially lost in U.S. District Court, but then the Eleventh Circuit remanded it back to the U.S. District Court. Then it won in U.S. District Court. The state appealed and a different panel of the Eleventh Circuit upheld the law.

But then the Georgia legislature amended the election law to say that presidential nominees can be on the ballot automatically in Georgia if they are on the ballot in at least twenty other states. The Libertarian Party wanted to amend its Complaint to make a new argument, that by passing this presidential ballot access law, the state had waived its argument that it had a compelling interest in keeping candidates off the November ballot unless they had overwhelming support inside Georgia. After all, the new presidential law meant that a presidential candidate might get on the ballot even if he or she had no support at all in Georgia.

But the Eleenth Circuit said it was too late for the Libertarians to amend their Complaint, and to make this new argument, they must file an entirely new case.

The U.S. Supreme Court will consider whether to hear Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians v Howe, 25-253, at its November 21 conference. This is a North Dakota legislative redistricting case. The Eighth Circuit had ruled that private organizations can’t file lawsuits under the federal Voting Rights Act, and that the lawsuit was therefore barred by procedure. This was a decision that contradicted decades of precedent ever since the act was passed in 1965.

Chad Bianco, one of the two leading Republicans running for Governor of California, has been sued because he campaigns in his uniform. The plaintiff is another gubernatorial candidate, Stephen Cloobeck, a Democrat. The case was filed in August but was not served until October. A hearing has been set for January 2026. Cloobeck v Bianco, Riverside County Superior Court, cvri 2505068.

California has a law saying that government employees who are running for public office must not wear their official uniform while campaigning.