On May 15, the Ninth Circuit issued a five-page unsigned order, upholding Washington state’s law that requires independent presidential candidates to run a newspaper legal notice at least ten days before the candidate may start to petition. De La Fuente v Wyman, 18-35208. The U.S. District Court had struck down the requirement, but the Ninth Circuit reversed.
The Ninth Circuit wrote, “It may be that Washington’s requirement is somewhat antiquated, and that publishing newspaper notices does little in this day and age to alert Washington’s voters to ongoing political activity. But because the burden imposed by the notice requirement is ‘slight’, Washington must only show that the law furthers ‘important regulatory interests.’..As such, even the modest notice function served by newspaper publication is enough to justify the minimal intrusion on candidates’ free speech rights occasioned by the notice requirement.”