On November 27, attorneys for President Trump, and for voters who wanted to vote for him in the California presidential primary, filed this brief in the California cases on whether SB 27 violates the U.S. Constitution. Senate Bill 27 was the law that kept presidential primary candidates off the ballot if they didn’t reveal their tax returns.

Trump’s attorneys agree that the U.S. District Court ruling, enjoining the law on U.S. Constitution grounds, should be vacated because it is moot (because the law also violates the State Constitution, so no ruling is needed on the federal constitution). But they say they are prevailing parties and the Ninth Circuit should send the case back to the U.S. District Court for a ruling on whether they can receive attorneys fees. So far, Rocky De La Fuente’s attorney has not joined this request, although De La Fuente was also a plaintiff against the law.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo continues to defend his plan to make it more difficult for groups to be qualified parties in New York by saying that if the state is going to give public funding to candidates, all candidates and parties on the ballot must have substantial public support.

None of the New York news sources have mentioned that New York is in the Second Circuit, and in 2010 the Second Circuit ruled it is constitutional to give public funding only to nominees of parties that polled at least 20% of the vote in the last gubernatorial election. The case was Green Party of Connecticut v Garfield, 616 F.3d 213. Here is a November 29 news story from the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, which shows that the Governor continues to say that all parties and candidates will receive public funding under his proposal. He also implies that parties themselves receive public funding, but that is not true.

This Houston Chronicle story says Libertarian Party candidates for the legislature are more and more likely to poll a number of votes that is greater than the difference between the two major party candidates. However the article does not mention ranked choice voting. Thanks to Clifford Thies for the link.