On May 26, the Sixth Circuit stayed the U.S. District Court decision in Thompson v Dewine. Last week the U.S. District Court had become the first federal court to give relief to initiative groups due to the health crisis. But the Sixth Circuit stayed the decision of the U.S. District Court, and implied that the First Amendment gives no protection for the initiative process.

Here is the Sixth Circuit order in case 20-3526. The three judges are: David McKeague and Jeffrey Sutton (Bush Jr. appointees) and John B. Nalbandian (a Trump appointee).

On May 26, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Schmidt v LaRose, 19-974. This issue is whether local election-administration officials can reject an initiative, even though it has enough valid signatures, because they don’t believe the initiative would be legal or constitutional if the voters passed it. The case arose in Ohio. The initiative concerned marijuana law. The U.S. District Court had ruled partially in favor of the initiative proponents, but the Sixth Circuit had reversed and ruled in favor of the local government.

On March 30, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed HB 272. For 2020 only, it extends the independent presidential petition deadline from August 13 to August 20.

It also gives qualified parties more time to certify the names of their presidential and vice-presidential nominees. The new deadline for that is August 27, which happens to be the last day of the Republican presidential convention. The old date was August 19, so if the bill had not passed, the Republican Party would have had to certify its nominees before they were officially nominated.