On December 26, the Georgia Libertarian Party filed this reply brief in its ballot access case, Cowen v Raffensperger, 19-14065. All the briefs are now in. The issue is the law on how minor party and independent candidates get on the ballot for U.S. House. The law is so difficult, no third party has ever complied with the law in the 76 years it has existed, and no independent has done it since 1964. Back in 1964 the deadline was in October, the signatures weren’t checked, and no U.S. House boundaries crossed county boundaries, so petitioning was far easier.

On December 20, the Eleventh Circuit expedited the case Jacobson v Florida Secretary of State, 19-14552. This is the case over the order of candidates on Florida general election ballots. The law gives the nominees of the party that won the last gubernatorial election the top spot on the ballot. Earlier this year, the U.S. District Court declared the law unconstitutional. The case had been filed by Democrats. Republicans have won all gubernatorial elections in Florida starting with 1998.

The Eleventh Circuit also refused to stay the decision of the U.S. District Court.

The Florida government brief is due January 7, 2020. The Democratic brief is due January 21, and the government’s reply brief is due February 4. The three judges on the Eleventh Circuit in this case are Beverly B. Martin (an Obama appointee); and Kevin Newsom and Britt Grant (Trump appointees).

A decision from the Eleventh Circuit in this case will probably control the outcome of a similar Georgia Democratic Party case that is pending in U.S. District Court. Both Florida and Georgia are in the Eleventh Circuit. The Georgia case is S.P.S.. ex rel Short v Raffensperger, n.d., 1:19cv-4960. In that case, the Georgia government has asked the court to dismiss the case, arguing that the U.S. Supreme Court decision Rucho v Common Cause (which said partisan gerrymandering does not violate the U.S. Constitution) means that federal courts have no authority to adjudicate cases on the order of candidates on the ballot. That is a very weak argument.

The new Minnesota presidential primary law lets parties have sole power to determine which presidential candidates will appear on their presidential primary ballot. As noted earlier, Rocky De La Fuente and a voter who wants to vote for him sued in the Minnesota Supreme Court earlier this month, because without court intervention, the only name on the Republican primary ballot will be President Donald Trump.

On December 18, the State Supreme Court accepted the case and set a briefing schedule. It also invited the Republican Party and the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party to file amicus briefs. On December 23, the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party said it would file an amicus. Until the amicus is filed, though, no one outside of the party will know which side the party is on.

The case is De La Fuente v Simon, A19-1994.