On April 6, the Arizona Libertarian Party filed this reply brief in its ballot access case, Libertarian Party of Arizona v Reagan, 17-16491. The issue is the large number of signatures needed for a member of the Libertarian Party to get on the party’s primary ballot. The U.S. District Court had upheld the law, which kept all Libertarians off the primary ballot in 2016 except just one candidate for county office.

The new restrictive law, passed in 2015, does not apply to the Green Party, which had a good number of candidates on in Arizona in 2016.

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.

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.