On July 12, attorneys for the state of Arkansas asked the Eighth Circuit to reverse the July 3 decision of a U.S. District Court in Libertarian Party v Thurston. The U.S. District Court had enjoined the 2019 law that increased the number of signatures for a newly-qualifying party from 10,000 signatures to 26,746 signatures.
On July 12, the Fourth Circuit issued an opinion in Fusaro v Cogan, 18-2167. The case had been filed by a Virginia resident who wanted to purchase a list of registered voters in a portion of Maryland. However, Maryland law says the list can only be given to residents of Maryland. The U.S. District Court had upheld the law, but the Fourth Circuit said the U.S. District Court should look at the issue again. Here is the 42-page opinion. The U.S. District Court had said there is no First Amendment involvement in this issue, but the Fourth Circuit disagreed. It wants the state to explain the reason for the restriction, and then the U.S. District Court will balance that against the harm being done to the plaintiff.
The decision will help the Alabama Libertarian Party to win its pending case against Alabama, over access to the voter registration list. The attorney for the Alabama Libertarian Party has already informed the U.S. District Court Judge in Alabama about the Fourth Circuit opinion.
The Fourth Circuit also added the detail that the Maryland list of registered voters only costs $128. Alabama wants tens of thousands of dollars for the Alabama list, although the Alabama major parties obtain it for free.
The California bill to force the American Independent Party to change its name has been amended. It has an urgency clause. If it is signed into law, it will take effect immediately. The AIP would need to change its name by December 1, 2019.
Tom Steyer, who announced a few days ago that he is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, says in this campaign you tube that he favors creating a “national referendum” process so that voters could determine federal laws.
Generally, a referendum refers to forcing a popular vote on a newly-passed law. One wonders if Steyer meant to also advocate for a national initiative process. Congress does so little these days, it isn’t likely that a national referendum, even if it existed, would be much of a vehicle for change.
A federal referendum process, or a federal initiative process, would require a U.S. Constitutional amendment. Thanks to Political Wire for the link.
On July 11, U.S. District Court Judge Catherine C. Blake upheld the Maryland ballot access law that requires all parties that fail to poll 1% for the office at the top of the ballot to submit 10,000 signatures in order to get back on the ballot. Johnston v Lamone, 1:18cv-3988.
The Libertarian Party had filed this case after it failed to get 1% for Governor in November 2018. The party argued that because it has over 22,000 registered members, it is obvious that it has the support of at least 10,000 voters. Therefore, it argued that requiring it to submit such a petition is meaningless. But the Judge said that it may be that the people who registered Libertarian no longer support the party, and they may be maintaining their Libertarian registration because of inertia. This part of the decision is not surprising, because she had denied injunctive relief several months ago for the same reason.
She did not rule on the other point in the lawsuit, that the law irrationally requires petition signatures to exactly match that voter’s name on the voter registration form, including middle initials versus the full middle name; or differences such as “Robert” in one place and “Bob” in another. She said that issue is not ripe, until the party does its new petition.
