On November 12, the U.S. Supreme Court released an orders list from its last conference, held on November 8. The Court did not issue any order for Carney v Adams, 19-309, even though it had been considered at that conference. That means the court is thinking seriously about taking the case.

The lower court in that case had struck down a provision of the Delaware constitution, which says that for most types of state courts, no one may be appointed as a judge unless he or she is a member of a party with 5% or more of the registration. This means in practice that no one can be appointed unless he or she is a registered Democrat or a registered Republican.

The Court also took no action on Thompson v Hebdon, 19-122, the case from Alaska over the state’s severe limits on campaign contributions and on out-of-state contributors. The lower court had upheld the limits.

On November 10, Don Blankenship publicly announced his presidential candidacy. See this story in The Hill. Thanks to PoliticalWire for the link.

On November 5, the Libertarian National Committee filed this reply brief in Libertarian National Committee v Federal Election Commission, 19-234. This is the case over whether the Constitution permits the FEC to prevent parties from receiving large bequests when the estate is probated, so that the party must wait to receive the money over a period of years.

The Court has put this case on its November 22 conference.