Amy Howe has this detailed description of the March 26 argument in the U.S. Supreme Court in the partisan gerrymandering cases from North Carolina and Maryland.
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On Tuesday, March 26, the U.S. Supreme Court heard the two partisan gerrymander cases, from North Carolina and Maryland. The North Carolina case, Rucho v Common Cause, was argued at 10 a.m. and lasted 70 minutes. The Maryland case, Benisek v Lamone, followed and as this post is being written, is still underway. There should be a great deal of news about the two hearings available from the general media, very soon.
Rhode Island Senator Mark McKenney (D-Warwick) has introduced SB 589. It eases the deadline for voters who change parties. Current law says voters can’t change parties during the 90 days before the September primary. The bill would change that to 30 days.
On March 19, U.S. District Court Judge Andre Birotte asked attorneys for the state of California to file an Answer to the Complaint in Soltysik v Padilla, c.d., 2:15cv-7916. This is the case over whether members of unqualified parties may have their party listed on the ballot. Current law says they can only have “party preference: none” printed on the ballot, if they are running for Congress or partisan state office. The plaintiff is a registered Socialist.
The U.S. District Court had dismissed this case some years ago, but then the Ninth Circuit reinstated it, so there will be a trial unless the state decides to settle the case.
On March 22, the Idaho Senate passed SB 1159, which makes it far more difficult to get statewide initiatives on the ballot. The vote was 18-17. All seven Democrats voted against it, along with ten Republicans.
It increases the number of signatures from 6% of the registered voters to 10%. It increases the number of legislative districts in which the measure must get 10% from 18 districts to 32 districts (Idaho has 35 legislative districts). It shrinks the petitioning period from 18 months to 6 months.
The bill also says a single initiative sheet cannot contain signatures from different legislative districts.
The bill takes effect immediately, so for 2020, 56,192 valid signatures will be needed.