On May 29, the California bill to require presidential primary candidates to reveal the last five years of their income tax returns was amended. SB 27 now also applies that requirement to candidates for Governor. As before, though, the bill does not apply to write-in candidates.
Scotusblog, the leading blog about U.S. Supreme Court news, has listed Hall v Merrill as one of the two “petitions of the week”. This is the Alabama ballot access case involving special elections for U.S. House. Scotusblog reviews all the cert petitions and identifies those that it believes have a fair chance of being accepted by the Court.
On May 31, the Ninth Circuit upheld the Arizona ballot access requirements for a party that has been on the ballot for more than two elections to get candidates on its own primary ballot. Arizona Libertarian Party v Hobbs, 17-16491. Here is the decision, which was written by Judge M. Margaret McKeown.
On May 31, California State Senator Tom Umberg amended his SB 505, the bill setting up details on how presidential candidates get on a presidential primary bill. The amendments make the requirements easier, compared to the original bill. Here is the text.
Existing law is very vague and gives the Secretary of State a great deal of discretion over who gets on the presidential primary ballots.
On May 30, the Maine House defeated the National Popular Vote Plan bill, 76-66. It had passed the Senate. The House has a Democratic majority, but some Democrats voted against the bill.
