On November 7, the Ninth Circuit heard oral argument in Merritt v Padilla, 18-55457, the case over an independent candidate’s right to place a title above his own statement of qualifications (in the voter guide, which is sent to every voter in the postal mail) saying he is an independent candidate. Paul Merritt paid to have his statement in the guide when he ran for US Senate in 2016. He started his statement with his own title, saying he is an independent.

Without even telling him, the Secretary of State deleted that title. He then sued, arguing that the First Amendment protected his self-dsecription, and also that it violated due process for the Secretary to have not even consulted with him before doing that. The U.S. District Court ruled in favor of the government. Here is the audio of the hearing, which was before Judge M. Margaret McKeown (a Clinton appointee); Joseph Jerome Farris (a Carter appointee), and a visiting U.S. District Court Judge from Illinois, Virginia Kendall (a Bush Jr. appointee).

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is preparing to file paperwork to qualify for the Democratic presidential primary in Alabama, ahead of a Friday deadline. The move would be a first step toward a national campaign, though Bloomberg has not made a final decision to run.

Alabama has the first deadline for a primary ballot.

The Democratic Party lawsuit against the Georgia law that regulates the order of candidates on the general election ballot, S.P.S. v Raffensperger, 1:19cv-4960, is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Amy Totenberg. She is an Obama appointee. Recently she ruled against the state in another election law lawsuit, Curling v Raffensperger. That case involved vote-counting machines.