U.S. District Court Judge Franklin Valderrama, a Trump appointee, will hear Sigcho-Lopez v Illinois State Board of Elections, n.d., 1:26cv-9156, on Wednesday, September 16, at 9:30 a.m. This is one of the cases that challenges the Illinois 5% petition for U.S. House independent candidates. The case had been filed on July 31 by Byron Sigcho-Lopez, an independent candidate for U.S. House in the 4th district in Chicago. Sigcho-Lopez is a Chicago city councilmember.
On September 9, the Texas Republican Party informed the U.S. District Court that its lawsuit is now stronger than it was originally. The new filing points out that the state party recently passed a resolution in favor of a closed primary for itself. This is the lawsuit in which the Texas Republican Party argues that it has a First Amendment right to a closed primary if it wants one. Hunt v State of Texas, n.d., 2L25cv-200.
On September 10, the Attorney General of New Mexico, Raul Torrez, a Democrat, filed an amicus curiae in the Tenth Circuit in New Mexico Forward Party v Toulouse Oliver, 26-2145. The surprise is that he filed it on the side of the Forward Party, and argues that New Mexico’s ballot access laws for new and minor parties are so difficult that they are unconstitutional. Here is his brief.
I have been following constitutional ballot access cases for sixty years and I don’t believe that the Attorney General of any state has ever taken that position in any previous constitutional ballot access case. There have been many instances when a state consented that one of its ballot access laws was unconstitutional, but this is a contested case.
On September 10, the Missouri Supreme Court said that Secretary of State Denny Hoskins had been in contempt of court last week, but that he is no longer in contempt, so there is no punishment. Early, some Missouri Republican state legislators had said if the State Supreme Court held Hoskins in contempt, they would try to impeach all members of the State Supreme Court.
This year, West Virginia has 19 minor party candidates for the legislature on the ballot. That is the most since at least 1936, and possibly earlier. The number of minor party legislative nominees in 1936 is unknown. The only minor parties on the ballot in 1936 were Socialist and Prohibition. The West Virginia ballot access laws became extremely difficult in 1937, and again in 1941. They were eased in 2009, after years of struggle.
This year there are nine Constitution Party legislative nominees, five Libertarians, and five Greens. The West Virginia Green Party has the name “Mountain Party.”
The previous highest number of legislative minor party nominees was in 1998, when there were ten Libertarians.
