The U.S. Supreme Court will put Polelle v Byrd, 25-147, on its October 10 conference. This is the lawsuit in which a Florida independent voter argues that the U.S..Constitution does not allow closed primaries.
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SECOND CIRCUIT RULES STATES HAVE VIRTUALLY UNLIMITED POWER TO CENSOR BALLOT LABELS
On August 21, the Second Circuit issued an opinion in Walden v Kosinski, 25-764. This is the case over the state law that says no independent candidate can choose “independent” or “independence” as a ballot label. The plaintiff, Jim Walden, is an independent candidate for Mayor of New York City, and he wanted “Independence” as his label. The Second Circuit had refused to give him injunctive relief on May 2 and said it would explain later. Finally, the explanation has been issued.
The opinion only has one sentence to explain the state interest in the ban. The Court said that without the ban, “that would lead unaffiliated voters to mistakenly believe that this designation was intended to represent all unaffiliated/independent voters, rather than a specific political organization.”
The paternalism behind this sentence is breathtaking. The same logic would justify banning any label that identifies any group.
On September 23, Arizona held a special election to fill the vacancy in the 7th U.S. House District. The results: Democratic 68.55%; Republican 29.77%; Green 1.11%; No Labels .56%.
When this seat had voted in November 2024, the results had been: Democratic 63.45%; Republican 36.55%.
On September 23, Georgia held a special election to fill the vacancy in the 21st State Senate district. The results: Republican 60.97%, Democratic 39.03%.
When this seat was last up,in November 2024, the results had been: Republican 70.35%, Democratic 29.65%.
On September 22, the state of Florida submitted this Memorandum to the Eleventh Circuit in Florida Decides Healthcare v Byrd, 25-12370. This is the lawsuit that challenges Florida’s new ban on out-of-state circulators for initiatives. The state says it needs more time to write its next brief, and says furthermore that the two sides are talking about settling the lawsuit. See page one of the Memorandum. Scroll down quite a ways to find page one, because there are lots of preliminary pages listing all the parties to the case as well as amici.
UPDATE: on September 23, the Republican Party of Florida, which is an intervenor in the case, filed a brief. It also says the case is in talks for a settlement.