Minnesota May Liberalize Access to Presidential Primary Ballot in Time for 2020

Posted on by November 12, 2019
5

The Minnesota legislature re-convenes February 11, 2020. Some legislators will introduce a bill to ease the requirements for getting on a presidential primary ballot, and hope to pass the bill in time to affect the 2020 Republican presidential primary. Current Minnesota law gives a party that is holding a presidential primary complete discretion on who can get on its presidential primary ballot. The Republican Party of Minnesota is only putting President Trump on its ballot.

The bill would enable any candidate to get on with a filing fee, and that would enable other Republican candidates to run. See this story.

U.S. Supreme Court Neither Accepts Nor Denies Delaware Ban on Independent Voters Becoming Judges

Posted on by November 12, 2019
1

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.