On January 22, U.S. District Court William O. Bertelsman, a Carter appointee, struck down a Kentucky ballot access law. Sweeney v Crigler, e.d., 2:19cv-46. The law, passed last year, requires independent candidates, and the nominees of parties that nominate by convention, to file a declaration of candidacy in January of the election year. The law only applies to candidates for state and local partisan office, not federal office.

The Libertarian Party filed the lawsuit, arguing that minor parties are not able to recruit candidates so early in the election year. The judge agreed. Here is the 16-page decision.

This decision will be useful in other pending lawsuits against early deadlines for minor party and independent candidates. Such cases are pending in Arkansas, Iowa, Maine, Montana, North Carolina, and Texas.

David King, a candidate for Mayor of Milwaukee, is off the ballot because his petition was found to contain only 1,497 valid signatures. The requirement is 1,500. See this story.

Mayor is a nonpartisan office, but King is a Republican.

On January 21, the government of Delaware filed this brief in Carney v Adams, 19-309. This is the case over the Delaware Constitution, which says that only members of parties that have at least 5% of the voter registration are eligible to be appointed to most judicial offices.

The U.S. Supreme Court has accepted this case, so this brief is the first brief on the merits in this case.

The Delaware government brief points out that Adams, who is a registered independent, was formerly a registered Democrat. It says that when he changed his registration from Democratic to independent, he injured himself by becoming ineligible for a judgeship. The brief uses the term “self-injury.”