On April 29, U.S. District Court Judge Robert J. Shelby, an Obama appointee, reduced the number of signatures needed by Utah Republican primary candidates for statewide office from 28,000 signatures to 19,040 signatures.  Garbett v Herbert, 2:20cv-245.  Here is the decision.

The candidate who brought the lawsuit is Jan Garbett, who is running for Governor.  She submitted 20,874 signatures by the April 13 deadline.  The primary is June 30.  The judge calculated the new requirement by noting that 32% of the normal petitioning time had been lost by the health crisis, so he cut the petition down to 68% of the normal requirement.  On May 1, the candidate appealed the relief, because it is extremely unlikely that she met the new standard.  However, on May 2, she dismissed her appeal.  The state then checked her signatures and determined that she did not have enough valid signatures, so although she won an important court victory, it won’t benefit her.

National Public Radio has a link to listen to U.S. Supreme Court oral arguments in the first two weeks of May.  See the story here.

On May 2, the Libertarian National Committee held an electronic meeting to consider how to nominate a presidential candidate. The group voted not to hold an in-person convention in Austin over Memorial Day. But the group will re-convene in a week to choose an alternate plan.