On April 6, Arkansas asked the Eighth Circuit to block independent candidate Mark Moore from getting on the ballot as an independent candidate this year, on the grounds that he didn’t file candidacy paperwork by the March 1 deadline. Last year Moore won a lawsuit against that deadline. The state now says the decision only covers the date the petitions are due, not the date for the other candidacy paperwork. Here is the state’s brief. Moore v Martin, 18-1382.
On April 6, the Institute for Free Speech filed this 20-page amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in French v Jones, 17-1255. The issue is a Montana law that makes it illegal for a candidate for judicial office to reveal that a political party has endorsed him or her. The plaintiff had been a candidate for Justice of the Peace, and he was not permitted to say that the local Republican Party had endorsed him.
The amicus is by well-known law professor Eugene Volokh, an expert on the First Amendment. The Supreme Court will consider whether to hear this case at its April 20 conference.
North Carolina campaign finance laws allow individuals to give more money to qualify parties than to unqualified parties. Early this year the Constitution Party filed a federal lawsuit against that disparity. The case, Constitution Party v Strach, w.d., 3:18cv-6, now has a trial date of January 22, 2019, in Charlotte. Discovery will be completed by August 2018.
On April 5, a New Mexico lower court upheld the ability of Joseph Cervantes to remain on the June 2018 Democratic primary ballot as a candidate for Governor. One of his Democratic opponents, Jeff Apodaca, had sued the Secretary of State, claiming that she had improperly accepted Cervantes’ petition even though it didn’t have enough valid signatures. But Apodaca didn’t serve notice of his lawsuit on the Attorney General, so his suit was dismissed. See this story.
Bills in each house of the California legislature to ban paying circulators on any basis except hourly are both advancing. AB 1947 passed the Assembly Elections Committee on March 21. SB 1394 passed the Senate Elections Committee on April 3. Both bills apply to initiative, referendum, and recall petitions, but not to independent presidential candidate petitions nor petitions to create a new party.
Governor Jerry Brown vetoed a virtually identical bill in 2011.
The Senate Committee analysis has an excellent list of cases in which similar laws have been struck down. See it here. Click on the link.
