On June 25, the Third Circuit said it will decide De La Fuente v Cortes, 17-3378, without oral argument. The three judges who now have the case are Patty Shwartz, Richard Nygaard, and Marjorie Rendell. The issue is the Pennsylvania law that restricts who can circulate petitions to get a candidate on a primary ballot. The law says they must be voters who are registered in Pennsylvania and who are members of the same party.

Judge Shwartz was also on the panel that earlier issued an opinion in a similar New Jersey case, Wilmoth v Guadagno. That ruling remanded the case back to the U.S. District Court, but said the New Jersey restriction on who can sign a primary petition cannot survive unless it is needed for a compelling reason.

On June 28, some law professors filed this amicus curiae brief in Segovia v United States, 17-1463. This is the case that challenges federal law and Illinois law that says U.S. citizens who move to Guam, Puerto Rico, or U.S. Virgin Islands lose their ability to vote, yet if the same voters moved to American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, or a foreign country, they could continue to vote absentee in Illinois elections.

Another set of law professors had already filed. Both sets of professors are on the side of the voters who brought the lawsuit.

The U.S. Supreme Court earlier had asked the government to file a brief, defending its policy. The brief of the government defendants had been due June 28, but the government asked for another month, so now the government briefs are due at the end of July.

On June 27, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that Don Shooter should be on the August 28 Republican primary ballot for State Senate, and seemed to rule that there is no requirement that candidates for the state legislature must have lived in the district for a full year before filing. See this story. The case is Backus v Shooter, cv-18-152. The opinion isn’t up on the court’s web page yet.