Roll Call has this essay on partisan gerrymandering and the upcoming U.S. Supreme Court argument in Gill v Whitford, the Wisconsin legislative districts lawsuit. It will be argued October 3.

On July 25, U.S. District Court Judge Brian Morris issued a permanent injunction, limiting the number of signatures Montana can require in special congressional elections to 80 per each day in the petitioning period. The injuntion will be in effect until or unless the legislature alters it.

The same judge had already limited the number of signatures in the special election held earlier in Montana, to 400 signatures. The case is Breck v Stapleton, 9:17cv-36. It covers both independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties. The state agreed to this action and will not appeal.

Three months ago, the Eighth Circuit ruled in Moore v Martin that Arkansas’ March petition deadline for non-presidential independent candidates is unconstitutional, unless the state can show that it needs a March deadline to have enough time to check the petitions.

On July 25, Arkansas asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse that decision, and to hold that the March petition deadline is constitutional regardless of whether the state needs all that time to check the signatures. Here is the request from the state to the U.S. Supreme Court. The case is now called Martin v Moore. The case number hasn’t been assigned yet.

The last time a state lost a ballot access case, and asked for U.S. Supreme Court review, was when Virginia lost over the out-of-state circulator law. The U.S. Supreme Court did not hear Virginia’s appeal. Before that, the last time was when Arizona lost over the June deadline for independent presidential petitions. The U.S. Supreme Court didn’t hear the Arizona appeal either.