The U.S. Supreme Court will consider whether to hear Arizona Libertarian Party v Hobbs, 19-757, on Friday, February 21.
If the court is interested in the case, it will ask Arizona to respond. Typically when the Court does that, it makes the request approximately two weeks before the conference date, which in this case would mean February 10.
On January 13, U.S. District Court Judge Yvette Kane issued an order in Benezet Consulting v Boockvar, m.d., 1:16cv-74. This is the case filed four years ago that challenges the Pennsylvania ban on out-of-state circulators for primary petitions.
The two-page order says that the plaintiff, which is a paid petitioning company whose employees don’t live in Pennsylvania, may circulate presidential primary petitions in Pennsylvania this year. But the order is limited to just the company that filed the lawsuit. That company has already established that its Pennsylvania circulators are registered Republicans in their home states. When the case was filed in 2016, the company was busy circulating presidential primary petitions in the Pennsylvania Republican presidential primary.
Ironically, the same company is now interested in circulating Democratic presidential primary petitions in Pennsylvania. So although the court order is a victory, it is not of great practical usefulness currently. It is expected that a new lawsuit, or several, will be filed soon on this issue in Pennsylvania.
The state had defended its ban on out-of-state circulators for primary petitions, by arguing that allowing out-of-state circulators would interfere with the associational rights of the political party. In response, the plaintiffs argued that is a ridiculous argument because the circulators are members of the same party; it’s just that they live in another state.
The current state of the law will be highly difficult to enforce. Election administrators in one state don’t easily have the ability to know how an out-of-state circulator is registered. Thanks to Trent Poole for this news.
The Alaska Democratic Party is postally mailing a presidential primary ballot to all registered Alaska Democrats, at party expense. The ballot will use Ranked Choice Voting. Voters can rank up to five candidates.
The twelve names on the ballot are Michael Bennet, Joe Biden, Michael Bloomberg, Pete Buttigieg, John Delaney, Tulsi Gabbard, Amy Klobuchar, Deval Patrick, Bernie Sanders, Tom Steyer, Elizabeth Warren, and Andrew Yang. Ballots will be mailed in late March, and are due April 4. There are also vote centers, open four hours, on April 4. See this story. Thanks to Fairvote for the link.
On January 28, the Eleventh Circuit heard oral argument in Kelvin Jones v Governor of Florida, 19-14551. This is the case over the Florida law that only lets ex-felons register to vote if they have paid all court costs, fines, and restitution. The U.S. District Court had enjoined it as applied to individuals who can’t afford to pay these amounts.
This article describes the Eleventh Circuit hearing. It appears at least two of the judges are skeptical that the law is constitutional.
It is possible to hear the oral argument at this link. Click on the eighth case down from the top, the Kelvin Jones case. Thanks to Howard Bashman for the links.
On January 27, the Michigan State Court of Appeals invalidated three restrictions on statewide initiatives that were passed by the legislature in 2018. League of Women Voters of Michigan v Secretary of State, 350938.
The vote was 2-1. The three restrictions are: (1) a provision that no more than 15% of the requirement signatures should come from residents of a single U.S. House district; (2) the requirement that each petition sheet contain a checkbox telling if the circulator is paid or unpaid; (3) a requirement that paid circulators, but not unpaid circulators, file an affidavit with the Secretary of State before starting to work.
Here is the majority opinion. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.
