The U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit, will hear Level the Playing Field v Federal Election Commission, 19-5117, on Monday, February 24, 2020. This is the case over presidential general election debates, and whether the FEC has failed to enforce federal campaign finance laws against the Commission on Presidential Debates. Federal law forbids corporations from making donations to federal candidates, and the plaintiffs argue that the Commission, which receives most of its funding from corporations, is in violation of this law because in essence, the Commission is contributing to the campaigns of the Democratic and Republican presidential nominees, and against all other presidential candidates.

U.S. District Court Judge Lance Walker will hold a trial in Baines v Dunlap, 1:19cv-509, on July 7, 2020. This is the Maine Libertarian ballot access case. The issues include the January 2020 deadline for a new party to qualify; the law that automatically converts members of a political party to independents when a party goes off the ballot; and the difficult requirements for a member of a small qualified party to get on his or her own party’s primary ballot. A statewide candidate needs 2,000 signatures of party members, no matter how many members that party has. Only party members may sign a petition to get a candidate on a primary ballot.

On December 23, the Michigan Secretary of State determined that the petition to get Deval Patrick on the Democratic presidential primary lacks enough valid signatures. The requirement is 11,345. Patrick submitted 13,777, but not enough were valid. See the Secretary of State’s letter here.

Patrick needed a petition because he didn’t declare for the presidential nomination until November 14, 2019. The deadline for the Secretary of State to decide which candidates are mentioned in the media was November 12. That deadline seems unnecessarily early. The only super-Tuesday states with an earlier deadline are Alabama and Arkansas. Thanks to several people for this news.