On August 13, the California Secretary of state asked the U.S. District Court in San Diego to transfer De La Fuente v Padilla to the U.S. District Court in Sacramento. This is the case in which Rocky De La Fuente challenges the new California law requiring presidential primary candidates to reveal their income tax returns. The other four federal lawsuits are pending in the eastern district (Sacramento). The Secretary of State says it would be more efficient if all five of them were heard by the same Sacramento federal judge.

The Secretary of State also asked the San Diego federal court to expedite a decision on whether the De La Fuente case will be moved to Sacramento.

The Jamestown (New York) Post-Journal has this story about the status and the arguments in the two pending cases to save fusion in New York state. One case is filed by the Working Families Party; the other by the Conservative Party.

California SB 696 will be heard in the Assembly Appropriations Committee on Wednesday, August 14, at 9 a.m. Here is a link to the Appropriations Committee’s analysis of the bill. Choose the August 12, 2019 version. SB 696 says no party can have the words “independent” or “independence” in their names. If signed into law, it will force the American Independent Party to choose a new name later this year.

The Appropriations Committee analysis does not contain any warnings that the bill may violate the First Amendment. By contrast, when the bill was in the Assembly Elections Committee, the analysis for that committee did mention that problem. The same link enables anyone to also read the Assembly Election Committee analysis, which is dated July 1, 2019.

The link also has some April 2019 analyses, but they are irrelevant because back then, the bill had an entirely different subject matter.