On September 6, the Michigan House passed HB 4892 by 92-13. It says that if city officials gave out incorrect information about the deadline for candidates to file for city office this year, the deadlines can be adjusted. The bill had been introduced last month. It is needed because in four Michigan municipalities this year, city officials did not give out accurate information about the deadline.
The bill now goes to the State Senate. Thanks to Thomas Jones for this news.
This extensive Politico story about the National Popular Vote movement gives details that most articles don’t mention. It says the the strategy of the movement is to try very hard to persuade Utah to pass the plan early in 2018. The leaders of the movement feel that if one state that is completely controlled by the Republican Party passes the plan, that will make it far easier to get others to do so. Thanks to Gene Berkman for the link.
On September 5, Minnesota asked the U.S. Supreme Court not to hear Minnesota Voters Alliance v Mansky, 16-1435. This the case over Minnesota’s law, banning anyone at the polls from wearing any political clothing, or anything attached to clothing that has a political message. Minnesota’s brief can be seen here.
Although it is already established that voters can be prohibited from wearing clothing that has a message about an issue, a candidate, or a party that is on the ballot in that election, the Minnesota law is far broader. The U.S. Supreme Court appears somewhat interested in this case because it asked Minnesota to respond. Otherwise Minnesota would not have bothered to submit a brief. The lower federal courts had upheld the law. The U.S. Supreme Court has this case on its September 25 conference.
On September 5, the Libertarian National Committee filed this 27-page brief in Libertarian National Committee v Federal Election Commission, U.S. District Court, D.C., 1:16cv-121. The issue is whether it is constitutional for the federal government to prevent the party from receiving a bequest of amounts greater than $33,900 in any one year.
The case arose when Joseph Shaber died in 2014 and left the Libertarian Party a bequest of $235,575. The FEC said the money must mostly be put in an escrow account, and doled out at the rate of $33,900 per year.
This is the second such lawsuit. The first one, when Raymond Burrington died and left the party $217,734, took so long to adjudicate, the money had all been possessed by the party before it was over, so it was declared moot. This case was filed in 2016 and is likely to be quicker, because some of the issues were already settled in the first lawsuit.
This new case is stronger than the last one, because in late 2014, Congress passed a budget bill that said national political parties could receive contributions almost ten times higher, if the money was used for one of three purposes: legal, national convention expenses, or headquarters expenses. The party argues that if such big contributions are now legal if a party wants to use the money just for those purposes, then a general gift to such a party can’t possibly cause corruption.
At this stage of the case, U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell must decide whether to send this case to an en banc panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit.
On August 31, the Federal Election Commission posted the dates of 2018 primaries for congress. For New York and Massachusetts, the chart shows that the date is yet to be determined. For Louisiana, the FEC correctly says that Louisiana doesn’t have congressional primaries. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.
