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.

On July 24, a state trial court in Massachusetts struck down the law that closes voter registration twenty days before any election. The basis is the State Constitution. Chelsea Collaborative v Galvin, Suffolk Co. Superior Court, cv16-3354-D. Here is the lengthy decision. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.