The Seventh Circuit will hear Tripp v Smart, 16-3469, on Monday, September 18, at 9:30 a.m.  This is the Green Party case that challenges the 5% petition requirement for independent candidates for the legislature, and also for the legislative nominees of unqualified parties.  Specifically the case challenges how the 5% petition works in districts that have no population centers.  It also challenges the requirement that every petition sheet be notarized.  The U.S. District Court had upheld all these requirements.

On August 4, the U.S. Supreme Court asked the Minnesota Secretary of State to file a response brief in Minnesota Voters Alliance v Mansky, 16-1435.  This is the case over Minnesota’s law that bans any clothing or badges that has a political context, regardless of whether anything on the ballot relates to that clothing or badge.  The lower federal courts had upheld the law.

When the Court asks for a response from the side that did not file the cert petition, that is a sign the Court is very interested in the case, and there is probably a 50% chance that the Court will accept the case.

The Utah Republican special congressional primary of August 15 was won by John Curtis, Mayor of Provo, Utah.  However, he was not the party’s endorsed choice.  On June 17, the Republican Party had held an endorsements convention which chose former state legislator Chris Herrod.

Curtis got on the primary ballot by petition.  The Utah Republican Party has been fighting for several years to make it impossible for candidates to get on the primary ballot by petition; the party only wants candidates on its primary ballot who had substantial support at an endorsements convention.

Curtis, the primary winner, is considered to be less conservative than Herrod.  The Utah Republican primary was limited to voters who are registered Republicans.