On May 9, U.S. District Court Judge Charles B. Kornmann issued an opinion in SD Voice v Noem, 1:19cv-1003. It strikes down the South Dakota that forbids out of-state individuals from contributing to or against a statewide initiative.
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Alex Kozinski, former chief judge of the Ninth Circuit, and now in private practice, has become an attorney for the plaintiffs/appellants, in Citizens for Fair Representation v Newsom, 18-17458, now pending in the Ninth Circuit.
This is the lawsuit that argues that California legislative districts have such huge populations (1,000,000 for each State Senator; 500,000 for each Assemblymember) that California is violating the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee that each state have a republican form of government. The people who filed the case include the Libertarian Party of California, the American Independent Party of California, and the city government of Fort Jones, California. They argue that ordinary people have no meaningful ability to communicate with their state legislators.
On the evening of May 8, the Texas House killed HB 4416, the bill that would have raised the vote test for a party to stay on the ballot from 5% for any statewide race, to 10%. Technically the bill was postponed until after the session is over. The vote was 78-69. Thanks to Jim Riley for this news.
The Constitution Party national committee has chosen Charlotte, North Carolina, as the location for its 2020 presidential convention. The dates are not set, but the convention will either be in late April or early May.
Charlotte had never had a presidential convention for any party, major or minor, until 2012, when Democrats met there. In 2020, the Republicans are meeting there.
On May 9, U.S. District Court Judge William O. Bertelsman, a Carter appointee, granted injunctive relief to the Kentucky Libertarian Party, and ordered the state to put the party’s nominees in the November 2019 election on the ballot. Sweeney v Crigler, e.d., 2:19cv-46. UPDATE: here is the Associated Press news story.
The judge ruled shortly after hearing the case, earlier in the same day. The Libertarian Party is ballot-qualified in Kentucky, and it nominates by convention. Thus no petition was involved. The problem for the party was that the legislature earlier this year had moved the declaration of candidacy deadline for the state and local nominees of convention parties from April to January. HB 114, had been signed into law on March 19, so by the time it was in effect, it was already too late for the declarations to be filed.