on the evening of Friday, July 24, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to get involved in an appeal by a church against the Nevada rules for gatherings during the health crisis. Calvary Chapen Dayton Valley v Sisolak, 19A1070. Here is the one-sentence order, accompanied by some dissents. The vote was 5-4.

This is the second time the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to alter shutdown rules. The first was in May, and also involved a church.

This is relevant to ballot access law because there are so many ballot access cases pending that relate to the health crisis. Thanks to Thomas Jones for this news.

On July 24, Gloria La Riva, presidential nominee of the Party for Socialism & Liberation, filed this request for injunctive relief in La Rova v District of Columbia Board of Elections, 1:20cv-01937. This is the case that challenges the number of signatures needed for a presidential candidate who uses the independent petition procedure. The requirement is 5,007 signatures. Normally the petition requirement for other districtwide partisan offices in D.C. is 3,000 signatures, but earlier this year the City Council lowered those petitions to 500 signatures, due to the health crisis. But the Board did not ease the presidential petition.

The D.C. presidential petition requires more signatures, as a percentage of the number of votes cast for president in November 2016, than any state except for Indiana. And D.C. has the second-shortest petitioning period for independent presidential petitions. The lawsuit asks that the presidential petition requirement be reduced for 2020, especially given that the city lowered the petition for all the other offices.

On July 24, five Illinois voters filed a challenge to the Kanye West independent presidential petition.