On October 29, the British House of Commons voted to hold a general parliamentary election on December 12, 2019. See this story. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.
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On October 28, the Eleventh Circuit ruled against some Bernie Sanders supporters who donated money to the Democratic Party in 2016. The supporters charged that the party had promised an impartial process for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, but actually tilted the contest in favor of Hillary Clinton. The 29-page decision in Wilding v DNC, 17-14194, is here.
The decision is by Judge Adalberto Jordan, an Obama appointee. It is also signed by Judge Frank Hull, a Clinton appointee; and Britt C. Grant, a Trump appointee. The decision does not try to determine whether the party did or did not tilt the process. But it says to prevail, the plaintiffs should have showed that they donated money to the party specifically because the party had promised a fair process, and that they would not have donated if they had known that the process was unfair.
U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren has spoken out against the idea that New York should make the definition of “political party” more restrictive. The idea is being pushed by the New York State Democratic Party chairman. See this story.
Alaska, like most states, requires that initiatives be a single subject. An initiative petition is circulating in Alaska to have a top-four election system with ranked choice voting in the general election (but not the primary). The same initiative also imposes campaign finance restrictions.
On October 28, a State Trial court ruled that the initiative is a single subject, “election law.” The state will ask the State Supreme Court to review that ruling. See this story.
The U.S. Supreme Court will consider whether to hear Carney v Adams, 19-309, on Friday, November 8. This is the case in which the Third Circuit struck down a Delaware law that says on most state courts, all judges must be members of parties that have at least 5% of the registration. Effectively this means they must all be Republicans or Democrats. No other party in Delaware history has had 5% of the registration.
All state court judges in Delaware are appointed. There are no judicial elections.
The U.S. Supreme Court won’t release news about the November 8 conference until November 12, at the earliest.