On July 7, Don Blankenship, Constitution Party presidential nominee, filed this brief asking for injunctive relief against the California independent presidential petition requirement. Blankenship v Newsom, n.d., 3:20cv-4479.
Also, he filed this reply brief on July 15. The case will be heard on August 5.
On July 15, Joseph Kishore, Socialist Equality Party presidential candidate, filed this brief in Kishore v Newsom, c.d., 2:20cv-5859. This is one of the two challenges to the California independent presidential petition procedure, which requires 196,964 signatures to be collected from late April through early August, a period entirely within the health crisis.
This case will be heard on July 20 at 2 p.m. by U.S. District Court Judge Dolly Gee.
On July 15, the Oregon Secretary of State, Bev Clarno, asked the Ninth Circuit to issue a stay in People Not Politicians v Clarno, 20-35630. The U.S. District Court had ordered substantial ballot access relief for statewide Oregon initiatives. The Ninth Circuit asked the Secretary to file her brief by July 17, and any reply is due July 20.
On July 16, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to intervene in the Florida ex-felon voter registration case. Rick Hasen explains this news here. The vote was 6-3. Justices Sonya Sotomayor dissented and her dissent is also signed by Justices Ruth Ginsburg and Elena Kagan.
On July 13, U.S. District Court Judge Lance Walker denied the Maine Libertarian Party’s request for rehearing, in its lawsuit over the definition of a qualified party. But he did write that the existing law has severe constitutional problems. Here is his order. Baines v Dunlap, 1:19cv-509. In the meantime, the Libertarian Party’s presidential petition has approximately 2,500 signatures. The requirement is 4,000, due July 25. The only qualified parties in Maine are the Republican, Democratic, and Green Parties.
