On July 11, a federal lawsuit was filed against an Arizona law that says if an out-of-state circulator’s work is challenged, and he or she can’t appear in Arizona to testify in-person in defense of the work, all the signatures collected by that circulator are automatically invalid. Miracle v Hobbs, 2:19cv-4694. Here is the Complaint. Thanks to ElectionLawBlog for the link.
The federal “Equal Time” law was passed in the 1930’s, and said radio had to give equal time to all candidates for office. Over the years the courts have whittled it down, so that now it has no effect except to apply to candidates who have a regularly-scheduled radio or television show. If they run for office, their employer must give equal time to all their opponents. So, invariably, individuals who have regularly-scheduled radio or television host jobs are told by their employers that their show must be suspended during their candidacy.
Green Party candidate Joseph DeMare has a regularly-scheduled radio show, so, as this article explains, he had to choose between continuing the show, or running for Bowling Green, Ohio city council. He chose to keep his job, and gave up his candidacy.
The Los Angeles Times has this editorial, calling on California Governor Gavin Newsom to veto SB 27. This is the bill that says presidential candidates can’t be on the presidential primary unless they reveal the last five years of their income tax returns.
As already noted, on July 11, the Libertarian, Green, Constitution, and America’s Party of Texas filed a federal lawsuit against the various barriers that keep them off the ballot, or inhibit their ability to nominate candidates. Miller v Doe, s.d., 1:19cv-700. Here is the 31-page Complaint.
Here is a Texas Tribune news story about the lawsuit.
UPDATE: also see this story.
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.
