The U.S. Supreme Court will consider whether to hear Martin v Moore, 17-156, at its conference of Friday, October 6. This is the case in which Arkansas is trying to persuade the Court to hear its appeal. The Eighth Circuit had ruled that unless the state can demonstrate that it needs a March petition deadline for non-presidential independent candidate to have enough time to check the signatures, then the March petition deadline is unconstitutional. The Eighth Circuit had then sent the case back to the U.S. District Court to give the state a chance to prove its contention. But attorneys for the state were not happy with that outcome, and asked the U.S. Supreme Court to countermand it.

Matthew Olsen and Benjamin Haas have this article at Politico, arguing that if the U.S. used a national popular vote to choose its president, it would be more difficult for hostile forces beyond our borders to manipulate the outcome of our presidential elections. Olsen is a former general counsel to the National Security Agency and a former director of the National Counterterrorism Center. Haas is a former Army intelligence officer.

On September 19, the Libertarian Party filed this brief in Husted v Ohio A. Philip Randolph Institute, the U.S. Supreme Court case over whether Ohio’s voter purge practices violate federal law. Thanks to Mark Brown for the information. The Court hasn’t set an argument date for this case yet.