On May 27, Tulsi Gabbard voluntarily dismissed her defamation lawsuit against Hillary Clinton. Here is the one-paragraph request. Gabbard says she still thinks her lawsuit has merit, but that there are more important goals. Thanks to Political Wire for this news.
This Salt Lake Tribune article says that thousands of Utah Democrats appear to be changing their registration to “Republican” so as to vote in the Republican primary.
On May 25, U.S. District Court Judge Paul K. Holmes issued an opinion in Miller v Thurston, w.d., 5:20cv-5070, a case over petitions for initiatives in Arkansas. The opinion suspends the law that requires all initiative petitions to include a signature of the petitioner who asked voters to sign the petition. In other words, the signer becomes his or her own circulator. This enables the group that is sponsoring the initiative to electronically distribute the petition to voters willing to sign it. They can print the petition blank from their own home printer. The order also suspends the law that says the petition sheets must be notarized.
The opinion is 25 pages. It upholds the July 3 deadline for the petition to be submitted. The lawsuit had been filed by a group that supports an initiative for a nonpartisan redistricting commission. The order applies to all initiatives, not just that initiative.
On March 25, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem signed SB 180. It repeals a law that said initiative circulators must register with the Secretary of State, and the registry would be public information. The circulator’s address, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and whether the circulator is a registered sex offender, would all be contained in the registry.
This law was declared unconstitutional early this year in SD Voice v Noem, 1:19cv-1017.
On the afternoon of May 26, Ohio initiative proponents filed a petition for rehearing en banc in the Sixth Circuit in Thompson v Devine, 20-3526. It is impressive that they were able to file such a document, only hours after the original Sixth Circuit decision came down. The issue is the ability of people to qualify an initiative during the health crisis. UPDATE: Here is the rehearing request.
